THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

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OF  CALIFORNIA 

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DAILY  LESSONS  FOR  LENT 


BY 


WYLLYS  REDE,  D.D. 

Canon  of  the  Cathedral  and  Rector 

of  the  Church  of  the  Incarnation, 

Atlanta,   Georgia. 


"(Epeiy  man  that  striucttj  for  ttje 
mastery  is  temperate  iti  all  tljings." 


NEW  YORK 
LONGMANS,   GREEN,  &  CO 

LONDON  AND  BOMBAY 
1897 


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Copyright,  1896 

BV 

Longmans,  Grkbn,  and  Co. 


First  Edition,  February,  1896 
Reprinted,  March,  1896 


THE  CAXTON   PRESS 

NIW  YOBK 


a 


&v 


TO 

GEORGE    H.   HOUGHTON,   D.D., 

MY   SPIRITUAL   FATHER, 

TO  WHOM, 

MORE  THAN  TO  ANYONE  ELSE 

IN   THIS   WORLD, 

I  OWE   IT 

THAT   I    AM 

A  PRIEST   IN   THE   CHURCH   OF  GOD, 

I   DEDICATE   THIS  BOOK 

WITH 

A  DEEP  SENSE  OF  GRATITUDE. 


PREFACE. 

These  meditations  were  made  with  my  people 
at  the  close  of  Evensong,  day  by  day,  last  Lent. 
They  are  now  put  into  print  with  the  hope  that 
two  classes  of  people  may  welcome  them. 

I.  Hard-worked  parish  priests,  who  find  no 

time  for  the  preparation  of  such  a  series  year 

by  year,  and  yet  desire  to  help  their  people  to 

draw  nigh   to  God   in  the  practice  of  devout 

meditation  during  Lent. 

^         2.  Devout  Christians,  who  are  accustomed  to 

spend  some  part  of  each  day  in  Lent  in  spiritual 

^    reading,  and  many  of  whom   are  deprived  of 

in    Church  privileges.    The  number  of  such  earnest 

g    souls  is  increasing  every  year. 

It  has  proved  impossible,  amidst  the  busy 

activities  of  parish  life,  to  revise  as  carefully  as 

o    I  might  have  wished,  the  work  which  was  struck 

^    off  under  pressure  day  by  day.     But  perhaps 

o    after  all  it  is  best  that  the  meditations  should 

retain  the  simple  and  sometimes  fragmentary 

forms  into  which  they  first  shaped  themselves, 

-I    rather    than    the    more    symmetrical    outlines 

which   a  colder    criticism    might    have   given 

them.    Traces  may  be  found  in  them  of  **  books 


r.3 


uj 


viii  Preface. 

which  have  influenced  me,"  but  it  is  manifestly 
impossible  to  give  credit  in  detail  to  the  authors 
from  whom  in  the  heat  of  hasty  preparation 
suggestions  were  received.  My  only  motive  in 
giving  to  the  world  this  book,  of  whose  imper- 
fections I  am  painfully  well  aware,  is  to  encour- 
age some  souls  to  renew  the  spiritual  combat, 
and  fight  it  to  the  end. 

Wyllys  Rede. 

St.  Andrew's  Day,  i8gS' 


CONTENTS. 


FIRST    WEEK    IN    LENT. 

Ash  Wednesday —  •"*'^=- 

Keeping  Under  the  Body I 

Thursday — 

Governing  the  Mind 6 

Friday — 

Bridling  the  Tongue II 

Saturday — 

The  Subjugation  of  the  Will l6 

SECOND   WEEK   IN   LENT. 

Monday — 

The  Trial  of  our  Faith 21 

Tuesday — 

Does  God  Lead  us  into  Temptation  ? 26 

Wednesday — 

Is  it  a  Sin  to  be  Tempted  ? 31 

Thursday — 

Temptation  to  Distrust  God 36 


viii  Contents. 

Friday —  pagb. 

Presumption  and  False  Confidence 41 

'Saturday — 

Doing  Evil  that  Good  may  Come 46 

THIRD   WEEK   IN   LENT. 

Monday — 

Is  the  World  our  Friend  or  our  Enemy  ? 51 

Tuesday — 

Overcoming  the  Evil  that  is  in  the  Worl  1 56 

Wednesday — 

Overcoming  the  World  by  Faith 62 

Thursday — 

Nonconformity  to  the  World 66 

Friday — 

Crucifying  the  World 71 

Saturday — 

The  Profit  and  Loss  of  World  111  K--S 76 

FOURTH    WEEK    IN    LENT. 

^0e  (JHaeferg  <£)t>er  (^bfjerstfg. 
Monday — 

The  School  of  Life 79 

Tuesday — 

The  Poverty  of  Spirit 86 

Wednesday — 

By  Meekness 91 


Contents.  ix 

Thursday—  ''*°^- 

By  Mourning 9" 

Friday — 

By  Making  Peace ^o^ 

Saturday — 

Througb  Persecution io6 

FIFTH  WEEK   IN   EENT. 

^3e  (JttaBterg  (£)tjer  ^\w. 

Monday — 

The  Mystery  of  Iniquity 112 

Tuesday — 

The  Pervasiveness  of  Sin "^ 

Wednesday — 

The  Deceitfulness  of  Sin 124 

Thursday — 

The  Lawlessness  of  Sin 13° 

Friday — 

The  Malignity  of  Sin 136 

Saturday — 

The  Mystery  of  Godliness 142 

PASSION  WEEK. 

^3e  (masferg  d)tjcr  buffering. 

Monday — 

Betrayal M^ 

Tuesday — 

Misjudgment ^54 


X  Contents. 

Wednesday —  page. 

Poverty i6o 

-^Thursday — 

Bodily  Suffering l66 

Friday — 

Mental  Suffering 172 

Saturday — 

The  Reward  of  SunVrinn; 178 

nOI.Y    WEEK. 

^5e  (UlaBferg  ^oer  '^vxi?^ 
Monday — 

WTiat  is  Death  ? 184 

Tuesday — 

Obedience  unto  Death lyo 

Wednesday — 

Love  Stronger  than  Death ig6 

Maundy  Thursday — 

The  Blessing  of  a  Finished  Life 202 

Good  Friday — 

The  Surrender  of  the  Soul 208 

Easter  Even — 

After  Death 214 


FIRST   WEEK   IN    LENT. 


ASH  WEDNESDAY. 

KEEPING    UNDER    THE    BODY. 


"  Every  man  that  striveth  for  the  mastery  is  temperate  in  all 
things.  Now,  they  do  it  to  obtain  a  corruptible  crown,  but  we 
are  incorruptible.  I,  therefore,  so  run,  not  as  uncertainly ;  so 
fight  I,  not  as  one  that  beateth  the  air;  but  I  keep  under  my 
body  and  bring  it  into  subjection." — /.   Cor.  ix.  sj-sy. 

Standing  upon  the  threshold  of  another  Lent, 
with  an  earnest  desire  to  make  the  most  of  its 
sacred  opportunities,  we  must  to-day  strike  out 
some  line  of  thought  which  we  can  follow 
through  this  holy  tide.  It  ought  to  be  one  rich 
in  spiritual  suggestion,  and  full  of  practical  help- 
fulness. Such  a  theme  is  suggested  to  us  by 
St.  Paul : — Striving  for  the  Mastery ;  the  mas- 
tery over  self,  over  satan,  over  the  world,  over 
adversity,  over  sin,  over  suffering,  over  death. 
Let  us  try  to  set  before  ourselves  this  great 
theme   in    all    its  many-sidedness. 

To-day  let  us  consider  the  mastery  which  we 
need  to  gain  over  that  lower  part  of  ourselves 


2  First  Week — Ash  Wednesday. 

which  the  Bible  speaks  of  as  "the  body"  or 
**  our  flesh." 

St.  Paul,  drawing  a  vivid  and  forceful  illus- 
tration from  the  Corinthian  games,  lets  us  into 
the  secrets  of  his  spiritual  life,  and  gives  us  a 
glimpse  of  the  methods  by  which  his  splendid 
character  was  matured.  With  possibly  some 
pathetic  allusion  to  the  bodily  weakness  which 
they  had  despised  and  to  that  "thorn  in  the 
flesh  "  which  so  sorely  troubled  him,  he  reveals 
to  his  Corinthian  converts  the  tactics  of  his  spir- 
itual warfare.  "  So  fight  I,  not  as  one  that  beat- 
eth  the  air;  but  I  keep  tmder  my  body  and  bring 
it  into  subjection."  Grasp  the  force  of  these 
words.  They  mean,  "It  is  no  unreal  contest 
in  which  I  am  engaged.  It  is  a  deadly  conflict. 
I  am  face  to  face  with  my  enemy.  Every 
blow  must  be  delivered  directly  at  him  with  the 
most  telling  effect.  I  fight  fiercely,  desperately, 
doggedly.  I  strike,  not  at  random,  but  with  all 
my  skill  and  with  all  my  might.  I  crush  my 
adversary  with  repeated  heavy  blows.  I  humble 
him  and  keep  him  low."  Such  was  the  struggle 
which  St.  Paul  assured  his  followers  he  was 
accustomed  to  carry  on. 

But  who  was  his  opponent  in  this  hard-fought 
fight,  the  recipient  of  these  deadly  blows  ?  None 
other  than  his  own  body,  his  flesh,  the  old  Adam 
within  him.     This  was  the  enemy  against  whom 


Keeping  Under  the  Body.  3 

he  had  to  contend  and  whom  he  was  determined 
to  subdue.  Here  was  a  foe  within  his  own  bor- 
ders against  whom  he  must  wage  unceasing 
warfare.  Here  was  a  rebellious  force  w^hich 
must  be  crushed  and  kept  under  close  restraint, 
if  he  was  to  dwell  in  safety  and  possess  his  soul 
in  peace. 

To  this  same  w^arfare  we  are  called  all  our  life 
long,  and  especially  during  this  Lent.  The  body 
with  its  pleasures,  its  exacting  requirements, 
its  incessant  demands,  is  the  enemy  of  our  higher 
life.  "  The  flesh  lusteth  against  the  spirit,  and 
the  spirit  against  the  flesh;  and  these  are  con- 
trary the  one  to  the  other."  "■  There  is  an  irre- 
pressible conflict  between  the  two. 

How  is  the  body  to  be  subdued  ?  By  scourg- 
ings,  by  severe  asceticism,  by  punishing  the 
body  for  the  sins  of  the  soul  ?  Some  of  us  have 
seen  that  great  painting  of  The  Flagellants,  in 
which  a  multitude  of  young  and  old  are  pictured 
as  lashing  themselves  fiercely  to  turn  aside  the 
wrath  of  God.  Is  it  thus  that  our  bodies  must 
be  subdued  ?  Must  we  cut,  and  bruise,  and 
starve  our  flesh  into  subjection  to  the  soul  ? 
Which  is  right,  the  ascetic  spirit  of  the  past,  or 
the  easy  living  of  to-day  ?  Neither  of  them  is 
wholly  right,  they  are  both  perilous  extremes. 
When  St.  Paul  spoke  of  keeping  under  his  body, 

I  Gal.  V.  17. 


4  First  Week — Ash  Wednesday. 

he  included  in  that  expression  all  those  claims 
originating  from  our  existence  in  bodily  form 
which  war  against  the  soul.  Everything  which 
is  wisely  adapted  to  overcome  them  ought  to  be 
used.  There  are  some  sins  which  only  fasting 
and  prayer  can  cast  out.'  There  are  some  na- 
tures for  whom  severe  bodily  discipline  is  a 
necessity.  For  all  of  us  the  Church  evidently 
considers  som-e  measure  of  abstinence  from  the 
gratification  of  the  desires  of  our  flesh  as  a  most 
wholesome  discipline.  So  long  as  we  are  in  the 
body  we  shall  not  become  spiritual  by  means 
wholly  spiritual.  We  shall  need  a  wise  combi- 
nation of  disciplme  for  the  soul  and  body  both. 
We  must  keep  under  the  body  while  we  educate 
the  soul. 

In  this  great  conflict  with  our  lower  selves 
we  have  need  of  absolute  sincerity.  We  must 
recognize  our  body,  with  all  its  strong  animal 
appetites,  its  downward  tendencies,  its  almost 
incorrigible  selfishness,  as  an  insidious  and 
deadly  enemy  of  our  spiritual  life.  The  deceit- 
ful lusts  of  the  flesh  which  war  against  the  soul 
are  cruel  and  cunning  foes.  We  must  have 
no  sham  fighting,  no  beating  of  the  air.  The 
contest  is  a  very  real,  a  very  anxious,  a  very 
momentous  one.  We  cannot  afford  to  deceive 
ourselves  or  to  be  deceived.     We  must  be  in 

I  St.  Matt.  xvii.  21. 


Keeping  Under  the  Body.  5 

dead  earnest,  must  know  exactly  what  we  are 
about,  and  must  make  every  blow  tell.  Has 
there  been  any  unreality  in  our  Christianity  ? 
Has  our  warfare  against  self  been  in  the  past 
somewhat  feeble  and  faltering  ?  Let  us  renew 
it  to-day  with  a  determination  to  fight  as  did  St. 
Paul.  Let  us  cast  aside  all  secret  tenderness 
for  ourselves,  and  fight  a  good  fight  against  the 
evil  that  is  within  us.  Let  us  mercilessly  buf- 
fet and  mortify  our  fleshly  lusts  until  we  have 
brought  them  into  complete  subjection  and 
gained  the  mastery  over  them. 


FIRST   WEEK   IN   LENT. 


THURSDAY. 
GOVERNING    THE    MIND. 


"  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God     •     .     .     with  all  thy 
mind. — Sf.  Alark  xii.  jo. 

Have  we  grasped  this  great  necessity,  that 
the  mind  as  well  as  all  other  parts  of  our 
being  must  be  given  up  to  God  ?  We  have 
perhaps  learned  that  "the  body  is  for  the 
Lord."'  We  have  heard  God  calling  out  to  us, 
"My  son,  give  me  thine  heart."  But  do  we 
realize  also  that  we  must  serve  Him  "with  a 
willing  mind  "  ?  Have  we  gained  the  mastery 
over  our  mind,  and  devoted  it  to  the  reasonable 
service  of  God  ? 

It  is  not  easy  to  do  so  nowadays.  We  live  in 
a  time  of  great  intellectual  freedom  and  activity. 
Everyone  now  claims  the  right  to  throw  off  all 
restraints,  to  think  for  himself,  to  form  his  own 
opinions,  to  explore  the  whole  wide  field  of 
human  thought.     There  is  great  danger  in  such 


Governing  the  Mind. 


^<i 


a  state  of  affairs.  The  human  mind,  like  the 
human  body,  shares  in  the  infirmities  of  our 
fallen  race.  It  is  prone  to  curiosity,  to  conceit, 
to  false  confidence,  to  pride  and  vanity.  It  is 
liable  to  run  into  error  at  every  step.  It,  no 
less  than  the  body,  needs  to  be  chastened,  re- 
strained, governed,  and  subdued.  Its  excesses 
are  more  difficult  to  deal  with  than  those  of  the 
body.  The  temptations  which  so  easily  beset 
it  are  more  subtle  and  seductive.  Self-discipline 
and  self-restraint  grow  more  difficult  as  we  go 
up  into  the  realm  of  mind.  The  sins  of  the 
intellect  are  not  so  gross,  and  open,  and  repulsive 
as  those  of  the  flesh.  There  is  often  a  certain 
nobility  about  them,  an  air  of  distinction  which 
goes  far  to  palliate  their  wickedness.  The  world 
winks  at  them,  apologizes  for  them,  or  openly 
approves  of  them.  It  has  somehow  come  to  be 
felt  that  the  human  mind  is  emancipated  from 
all  restraint,  free  to  go  its  own  way  with  or 
without  God,  less  responsible  to  God  than  the 
body  or  the  spirit  of  man. 

This  is  a  terrible  mistake.  The  mind  as  well 
as  the  body  is  for  the  Lord.  It  is  no  more  free 
from  moral  obligation  than  any  other  part  of 
the  nature  of  man.  It  is  accountable  to  God 
for  every  moment  of  its  activity,  for  every 
thought,  for  every  tone  and  temper  which  it 
indulges   in.     We    are  as    solemnly   bound   to 


8  First  Week — TJmrsday. 

think  right  as  to  do  right,  to  govern  the  mind 
as  to  subdue  the  body,  to  have  a  pure  mind  as 
to  keep  a  clean  heart.  We  cannot  banish  God 
from  the  domain  of  human  thought.  His  rights 
there  are  sacred  and  must  be  maintained. 

We  are  called,  then,  as  Christians,  to  the 
mastery  of  the  mind.  We  must  claim  it,  sub- 
due it,  govern  it,  use  it  for  God.  Its  insatiable 
curiosity,  its  restlessness,  its  self-confidence,  its 
rashness  and  irreverence  must  be  restrained. 
We  must  hold  it  responsible  for  the  use  of  all 
the  time  given  it  by  God  for  its  activities. 
While  we  give  it  needful  rest  and  relaxation, 
we  must  systematically  train  it  and  devote 
it  to  the  service  of  God.  To  crowd  it  with 
the  knowledge  of  this  world,  to  busy  it  con- 
stantly with  human  affairs,  to  hold  it  down  to 
the  low  level  of  worldly  pursuits,  to  concen- 
trate all  its  energies  upon  the  accumulation  of 
wealth  or  the  activities  of  society,  to  exhaust  it 
in  these  ways,  is  to  defraud  ourselves  of  all  its 
truer,  higher  life.  It  is  to  debauch  and  squan- 
der one  of  the  most  precious  gifts  of  God,  to 
antagonize  God  and  our  better  self.  "  To  be 
carnally  minded  is  death,  but  to  be  spiritually 
minded  is  life  and  peace.  Because  the  carnal 
mind  is  enmity  against  God.."'  May  God 
preserve  us  from   a   carnal  mind. 

I  Romans  viii.  6,  7. 


Goverfiinsr  the  Mind. 


^t> 


The  New  Testament  has  a  great  deal  to  say- 
about  the  government  of  the  mind,  and  de- 
scribes many  sorts  of  minds.  Every  one  of  its 
vividly  descriptive  phrases  will  furnish  food  for 
devout  meditation.  It  warns  us  against  minds 
which  are  * '  feeble,  shaken,  doubtful,  double, 
defiled,  blinded,  fleshly,  evil  affected,  hardened 
in  pride,  despiteful,  wicked,  corrupt,  reprobate." 
It  loves  to  picture  the  beauty  of  a  mind  "  sober, 
sound,  steadfast,  humble,  lowly,  willing,  pure, 
spiritual,  stayed  on  God. "  It  exhorts  us  to  "let 
this  mind  be  in  us  which  was  in  Christ  Jesus."  ' 

Let  us  take  to-day  a  few  thoughts  and  work 
each  of  them  out  into  a  practical  resolve. 

1.  I  will  try  to  keep  my  mind  pure.  I  will 
guard  it  against  idle  gossip,  against  the  shallow 
talk  of  society,  against  the  loose  light  literature 
of  the  day,  against  all  that  may  soil  and  stain 
the  spotless  purity  which  ought  to  be  the  con- 
stant condition  of  a  Christian  mind. 

2.  I  will  remember  my  responsibility  to  God 
for  the  use  of  my  mind.  I  will  take  care  that 
its  occupations  are  such  as  God  can  approve. 
Its  moods,  its  activities,  and  all  its  thoughts 
must  be  brought  "into  captivity  to  the  obedi- 
ence of  Christ."  ^  I  will  deliberately  undertake 
to  fill  it  with  the  knowledge  of  God,  and  to 
occupy  it  with  worthy  pursuits. 

I  Phil.  ii.  S.  2  II.  Cor.  x.  5. 


lO  First   Wcek—TJmrsday. 

3.  Finally,  I  will  govern  my  mind.  It  shall 
not  run  wild,  ungoverned  and  unrestrained.  I 
will  hold  it  accountable  to  myself  and  to  God 
-continually.  It  shall  obey  me  and  do  my  will. 
It  shall  be  under  my  control.  I  will  master  it  and 
make  it  do  my  will.  And  I  will  often  lift  it  up 
to  God. 


I 


FIRST  WEEK  IN  LENT. 


FRIDAY. 

BRIDLING    THE    TONGUE. 


"  If  any  man  among  you  seem  to  be  religious,  and  bridleth 
not  his  tongue,  but  deceiveth  his  own  heart,  this  man's  rehgion 
is  vain." — St.  James  i.  26. 

We  shall  need  but  a  moment's  thought  to 
satisfy  ourselves  of  the  importance  of  bridling 
the  tongue.  Take  all  the  words  that  have  ever 
been  spoken  out  of  the  mouth  of  man  since  the 
world  began,  weigh  them  well  in  a  balance,  and 
think  how  many  of  them  might  better  have 
been  left  unsaid.  How  many  of  them  are  idle 
words,  hollow  words,  sharp  words,  bitter  words, 
blasphemous  words,  impure  words?  Must  we 
not  exclaim  with  the  Psalmist,  "  Thou  hast 
loved  to  speak  all  words  that  may  do  hurt,  O 
thou  false  tongue."  '  It  is  an  awful  thing  to 
think  of  the  myriads  of  words  which  have  fallen 
from  the  tongues  of  men  and  to  consider  how 

I  Psalm  lii.  5. 


1 2  First   Week — Friday. 

many  of  them  have  brought  only  grief  and  pain 
into  the  world.  Verily,  "the  tongue  is  an 
unruly  evil,  full  of  deadly  poison."  "  So  is  the 
tongue  among  our  members,  that  it  defileth  the 
whole  body,  and  setteth  on  fire  the  course  of 
nature,  and  it  is  set  on  fire  of  hell."  ' 

If  this  language  seems  unduly  strong,  we 
must  remember  that  sins  of  the  tongue  are 
always  worse  than  they  seem,  because  they 
betray  the  wrong  that  lurks  in  the  heart.  ' '  Out 
of  the  abundance  of  the  heart  the  mouth  speak- 
eth."  ^  It  is  only  the  pure  in  heart  who  can  see 
God.  He  who  bringeth  evil  words  out  of  an 
evil  heart  cannot  see  God,  either  in  this  world 
or  in  the  world  to  come.  Pure  words  out  of  a 
clean  heart  are  like  "apples  of  gold  in  pictures 
of  silver."  3 

Let  us  take  a  firm  hold  to-day  upon  this  funda- 
mental principle  of  the  Christian  life — if  we  are 
to  be  at  peace  with  God  and  man,  if  we  are  to 
be  at  peace  within  ourselves,  we  must  learn  to 
rule  the  tongue.  Christian  people  especially 
must  do  so.  Good  people,  those  who  are  lead- 
ing what  the  world  recognizes  as  godly  lives, 
are  in  great  danger  at  this  very  point.  They 
may  be  free  from  some  of  the  grosser  sins  of 
the  tongue,  but  are  they  not  often  critical,  cen- 
sorious, uncharitable,  busy  about  others'  aflFairs, 

I  St.  James  iii.  8.  6.     2  St.  Matt.  xii.  34.     3  Prov.  xxv.  il. 


Bridling  the  Tongue.  13 

careless  in  their  speech?  Do  they  not  sometimes 
relax  their  restraint  upon  the  tongue,  and  under 
the  cover  of  intimate  friendship  or  in  moments 
of  indignation  permit  themselves  to  speak  words 
which  may  do  harm?  Are  they  always  care- 
ful, conscientious,  scrupulous  as  to  what  they 
say?  They  need  to  be  especially  watchful  of 
themselves  because  their  words  have  a  double 
power  for  harm.  The  general  uprightness  of 
their  lives  makes  a  wrong  or  idle  word  from 
their  lips  doubly  dangerous.  The  closer  we 
walk  with  God,  the  more'watchfuUy  must  we 
guard  the  door  of  our  lips. 

There  is  one  vice  of  the  tongue  which  every 
Christian  ought  to  hate  and  shun.  Talkative- 
ness is  one  of  the  chief  errors  of  our  day  and  is 
a  deadly  foe  of  the  spiritual  life.  No  talkative 
person  will  ever  attain  to  a  high  degree  of 
sanctity.  An  unbridled  tongue  is  "an  unruly 
evil,  full  of  deadly  poison."  One  of  the  greatest 
masters  of  the  spiritual  life  has  given  it  as  his 
judgment  that  *'  Talkativeness  is  the  mother  of 
sloth,  the  sign  of  ignorance  and  folly,  the  door 
of  slander,  the  minister  of  lies,  the  destroyer  of 
fervent  devotion."  "We  may  add  that  it  is  the 
offspring  of  pride,  for  it  is  only  those  who 
think  much  of  themselves  and  set  a  high  value 
upon  their  own  words  who  will  have  much  to 
say. 


14  First  Week — Friday. 

There  is  one  theme,  however,  upon  which  we 
might  well  talk  more  freely  than  we  do,  that  is, 
about  God  and  the  things  of  God.  There  is  little 
danger  that  we  will  talk  too  much  of  Him.  The 
tongue  is  the  best  member  that  we  have,  because 
with  it  we  can  praise  Him  now  and  through 
eternity.  Christians  ought  to  talk  more  freely 
of  the  things  which  most  concern  their  souls. 
*'  Come,"  said  Archbishop  Usher  to  his  most  fa- 
miliar friend,  "  let  us  always  say  something  about 
Christ  before  we  part." 

Speak  then,  O  my  tongue,  less  often  of  thy 
neighbour  and  thyself  and  more  of  God.  And 
let  all  thy  words  be  such  as  these : 

Pure  words  out  of  a  clean  heart,  free  not  only 
from  all  sin  and  shame,  but  free  from  world- 
liness  and  all  that  savours  not  of  God. 

True  words,  true  in  intention,  true  in  appear- 
ance, true  towards  men,  true  towards  God,  true 
enough  to  stand  the  test  of  the  great  Judgment 
Day. 

Kind  zvords,  such  as  our  Saviour  spoke  in  the 
days  of  His  earthly  ministry.  They  cost  little 
and  are  worth  much.  They  return  upon  us  an 
hundred-fold  and  fill  our  life  with  sweetness 
and  unfailing  joy. 

Helpful  ivords,  full  of  timely  warning  and 
encouragement,  words  of  wise  counsel  in  the 
time  of  need,  strong  words  of  righteousness  and 


Bridling  the  Tongue.  1 5 

truth  sown  broadcast  in  the  wide  world-field,  of 
which  God  shall  give  the  increase  in  His  own 
good  time.  "  A  word  spoken  in  due  season, 
how  good  it  is !  "  ' 

Go  forth,  O  my  soul,  and  speak  such  words; 
kind  and  helpful,  pure  and  true.  Make  it  thy 
lifelong  habit  to  bring  them  forth;  let  God 
teach  thee  and  tell  thee  how;  and  rule  thy 
tongue  prudently  with  all  thy  power,  remember- 
ing this,  "  If  any  man  offend  not  in  word,  the 
same  is  a  perfect  man,  and  able  also  to  bridle 
the  whole  body.  =* 

I  Prov.  XV.  23.  »  St,  James  iii.  2. 


FIRST  WEEK  IN  LENT. 


SATURDAY. 

THE   SUBJUGATION    OF    THE    WILL. 


"  Not  my  will,  but  Thine,  be  done." — Sf.  Luke  xxii.  42. 

Out  of  the  shadows  of  Gethsemane,  out  of  a 
heart  wrung  with  agony,  from  a  tongue  that 
spake  as  never  man  spake,  these  words  were 
flung  into  the  midst  of  a  lost  world.  The  Son 
of  Man  was  Iworking  out  that  prayer  which  He 
had  given  as  the  Son  of  God,  ''  Thy  will  be 
done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven."  In  the  glory 
which  He  had  with  His  Father  before  the  world 
was,'  there  had  been  unbroken  harmony  of 
will,  and  now,  hard  as  it  was  for  His  human 
nature  to  bear  the  strain.  He  held  His  human 
will  in  close  conformity  to  the  Divine.  If  one 
may  reverently  say  so,  it  was  the  crisis  in  His 
human  life,  the  fiercest  assault  of  the  powers  of 
evil,  the  final  triumph   in   the  warfare   of   self 

I  St,  John  xvii.   5. 


TJic  Subjugation  of  the  IVi//.  i  / 

against  God,  the  complete  surrender  of  the 
lower  to  the  higher  self.  In  the  garden  of 
Gethsemane  was  consummated  in  will,  if  not  in 
deed,  the  Eternal  Sacrifice  of  Calvary. 

That  same  battle  must  be  fought  in  every 
human  soul.  When  the  flesh  has  been  disciplined, 
when  the  mind  has  been  devoted  to  the  service 
of  God,  the  study  of  His  Word,  and  when  that 
unruly  member,  the  tongue,  has  been  brought 
under  control,  when  the  outworks  of  the  evil  that 
is  within  us  have  been  won,  the  citadel  of  the  soul 
remains  yet  to  be  stormed.  Man  has  a  will,  sov- 
ereign and  uncontrolled.  Until  it  has  been  sub- 
dued and  surrendered  to  God,  the  victory  is  not 
won.  This  is  the  irrepressible  conflict  which  each 
of  us  has  to  fight.  Self-love  and  self-will  are 
strong,  and  with  most  of  us  the  struggle  must 
be  long  and  hard.  But  it  must  be  fought  and 
won,  if  we  are  to  be  true  soldiers  and  servants 
of  Christ.  "Not  everyone  that  saith  unto  Me, 
Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven,  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  My  Father 
which  is  in  heaven."  ' 

Let  us  realize  clearly,  then,  what  it  is  that  we 
have  to  do.  If  we  are  to  be  true  Christians,  to 
live  a  Christlike  life,  we  must  subdue  not  only 
all  the  other  powers  of  our  body  and  soul,  but 
also  our  will,  to  God.     We  cannot  serve  two 

I  St.  Matthew  vii.  21. 


1 8  First  Week — Saturday. 

masters,  God  and  self.  If  "  Christ  pleased  not 
Himself,"  if  He  throughout  His  earthly  life  sub- 
mitted Himself  entirely  to  the  will  of  His 
Father  which  was  in  heaven,  we  must  try  to 
do  the  same.  This  is  the  straight  and  narrow 
way  to  holiness  and  happiness.  It  was  a  favourite 
saying  of  St.  Bernard:  "Let  there  be  an  end 
of  your  own  will,  and  there  will  he  no  such 
thing  as  hell.  Master  your  own  will,  and  you 
have  at  once  removed  that  place,  to  which  you 
would  otherwise  have  been  bound  and  where 
you  would  have  been  tormented,  just  as  much 
as  if  hell  itself  were  destroyed  and  its  flames 
were  extinguished."  But  St.  Bernard  only 
shows  us  one  side  of  the  truth.  We  shall 
never  find  perfect  peace  and  happiness  until 
we  bring  our  rebellious  human  will  into  perfect 
harmony  with  the  divine.  Until  then  life  will 
be  full  of  anxiety,  disappointment,  conflict,  and 
unrest,  because  we  are  "fighting  against  God." 
But  from  the  day  when  we  bring  our  will  to  the 
foot  of  the  Cross  and  surrender  it  into  the  hands 
of  God,  from  that  day  forth  our  eternal  life, 
here  and  hereafter,  will  be  full  of  peace  and 
happiness.  It  will  matter  little  what  its  events 
and  vicissitudes  may  be.  We  are  in  the  strong 
and  loving  hands  of  God,  who  doeth  all  things 
well.  We  have  brought  heaven  down  to  earth. 
How,  then,  is  God's  will  to  be  done  ?      Our 


The  Subjugation  of  the  Will.  1 9 

Lord  Himself  has  told  us — "  Thy  will  be  done 
on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven."  Let  us  take  this 
central  petition  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  as  our 
intention  for  to-day  and  ask  ourselves  how 
God's  will  is  done  in  heaven,  so  that  we  may 
translate  the  same  methods  of  activity  into  our 
daily  life. 

First,  it  is  ^ono,  promptly.  The  angels  never 
lag  in  the  service  of  God.  There  is  no  ques- 
tioning, no  dallying,  no  making  of  excuses, 
they  do  instantly  the  will  of  God.  To  hear  is 
to  obey.  The  will  of  God  is  no  sooner  said 
than  done.  Delay  or  failure  on  their  part  would 
disorder  the  plans  of  God  and  wreck  the  uni- 
verse. 

Secondly,  they  do  it  gladly.  We  cannot 
imagine  an  angel  going  grudgingly,  unwillingly, 
rebelliously  to  do  God's  will.  We  cannot  think 
of  them  as  desiring  to  do  something  else,  shirk- 
ing their  work,  hating  to  serve  God.  No,  they 
are  ready,  anxious,  glad  to  do  whatever  God 
wills,  proud  to  do  it.  They  are  happy  with  an 
infinite  joy  in  even  the  humblest  ministry  to 
human  souls. 

Finally,  God's  will  is  done  perfectly  in  heaven. 
Every  cup  of  loving  service  put  into  angel 
hands  is  filled  '*  up  to  the  brim."  No  task  is 
unfulfilled,  no  duty  left  undone.  All  their  work 
is  made  **  perfect  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord." 


20  First  Week — Saturday, 

Why  cannot  we  do  the  will  of  God  on  earth  as 
it  is  done  in  heaven?  Why  do  we  not  once  for 
all  unite  our  will  with  God's  will  and  be  at  peace  ? 
If  we  would  only  do  so,  if  we  would  but  follow 
the  example  of  a  godly  life  given  us  by  the 
holy  angels  and  by  our  Blessed  Lord,  we 
should  at  once  enter  into  peace,  that  sweet  peace 
of  God  which  passeth  all  understanding  and  has 
infinite  power  to  satisfy  the  human  soul.  Our 
hearts  would  soon  become  so  closely  knit  to 
God,  and  our  lives  so  entirely  melted  into  his, 
that  it  would  be  impossible  for  us  to  go  contrary 
to  His  holy  will. 


SECOND  WEEK  IN  LENT. 
^^e  (^aeterg  ^tjcr  temptation. 


MONDAY. 
THE    TRIAL    OF    OUR    FAITH. 


"  My  brethren,  count  it  all  joy  when  ye  fall  into  divers 
temptations  ;  knowing  this,  that  the  trying  of  your  faith  worketh 
patience." — St.  James  i.  2,  j. 

Let  us  meditate  during  this  week  upon  the 
great  mystery  of  temptation  and  try  to  learn 
how  we  are  to  gain  the  mastery  over  it. 

What  is  temptation  ?  In  the  authorized  ver- 
sion of  the  Bible  the  word  generally  means 
to  test,  to  put  on  trial,  to  put  to  the  proof.  It 
is  only  occasionally  that  it  means  to  solicit  to 
evil.  Temptation,  in  the  Scriptural  sense, 
is  ordinarily  a  test  of  our  virtue,  a  trial  of  our 
faith.  It  is  anything  which  requires  us  to  show 
of  what  metal  we  are  made,  to  choose  between 
right  and  wrong.  It  may  arise  from  the  cir- 
cumstances in  which  we  are  placed,  from  the 
influences  by  which  we  are  beset,  or  from  our 


2  2  Second  Week — Monday, 

own  inner  selves.  But  however  it  may  originate, 
it  is  a  test  which  will  infallibly  show  what  we 
are. 

Temptation,  then,  is  an  important  element  in 
the  discipline  of  human  life.  The  constant 
necessity  of  choice,  the  responsibility  of  action, 
is  a  liberal  education  to  the  soul.  It  is  the 
exercise  by  which  moral  muscle  is  developed 
and  maintained.  It  is  the  probation  under 
which  we  are  placed  and  upon  which  hang  the 
eternal  issues  of  human  life.  God  permits  it  to 
come  upon  us  in  order  to  "  try  our  patience  for 
the  example  of  others,  and  that  our  faith  may 
be  found,  in  the  day  of  the  Lord,  laudable, 
glorious,  and  honourable,  to  the  increase  of 
glory  and  endless  felicity;  or  else  to  correct  and 
amend  in  us  whatsoever  doth  offend  the  eyes  of 
our  heavenly  Father,"  If  rightly  received,  "it 
shall  turn  to  our  profit  and  help  us  forward  in 
the  right  way  that  leadeth  unto  everlasting  life."  ' 

Temptation,  therefore,  is  not  only  a  needful 
but  a  blessed  provision  for  our  souls.  Without 
it  the  highest  type  of  character  cannot  be  pro- 
duced. There  may  be  great  purity  of  heart 
and  genuine  sanctity  without  much  temptation. 
But  the  loftiest  heights  of  human  perfection 
cannot  be  reached,  the  finest  and  strongest 
types  of  character  cannot  be  matured,  without 
I  Office  for  the  Visitation  of  the  Sick. 


The  Trial  of  Our  Faith.  23 

severe  trial  of  our  faith.  The  man  who  has 
repeatedly  met  and  conquered  temptation,  who 
has  breasted  all  the  world's  storms,  who  has 
been  victorious  on  a  hundred  fields  of  spiritual 
combat,  is  the  truly  great  man.  The  woman,  who 
out  of  the  great  deep  of  affliction  has  struggled 
bravely  on  and  up  to  God,  is  nearest  to  Him  in 
the  end.  The  Beloved  Disciple  was  nearer  to 
his  Lord  as  :he  toiled  in  the  mines  of  Patmos 
than  when  in  the  inexperience  of  youth  he 
would  call  down  fire  upon  Samaria.  The  whole 
ordering  of  this  world  and  of  human  life  is  such 
as  to  exercise  the  soul,  to  draw  out  its  higher 
powers,  and  to  build  up  its  better  self,  if  only 
the  heart  is  right  with  God.  To  him  who  has 
any  honest  desire  to  do  right  it  is  a  hard  but 
blessed  discipline  adapted  to  educate  and  bring 
to  perfection  his  whole  better  self.  If  we  had 
no  help  to  do  right,  if  the  chances  were  hope- 
lessly against  us,  if  God  had  put  us  into  our 
present  environment  without  giving  us  the 
power  to  refuse  the  evil  and  choose  the  good, 
we  should  have  some  ground  for  complaint. 
But  such  is  not  the  case.  Every  soul  has  ample 
inducements  to  do  good,  has  sufficient  help 
from  outside  itself  to  turn  every  rock  of  offense 
into  a  stepping-stone  on  which  it  may  mount 
up  to  God.  If  our  eyes  were  only  open  to  the 
piritual  world,  we  should  see,  as  Elisha's  timid 


24  Second  Week — Monday. 

servant  did,  that  they  who  are  for  us  are  more 
than  they  that  be  against  us.  ' 

We  have  the  distinct  assurance  from  Holy 
Writ,  "  There  hath  no  temptation  taken  you  but 
such  as  is  common  to  man ;  but  God  is  faithful, 
who  will  not  suffer  you  to  be  tempted  above 
that  ye  are  able;  but  will  with  the  temptation 
also  make  a  way  to  escape,  that  ye  may  be  able 
to  bear  it."  ^ 

Let  us  take  to-day  a  firm  grasp  upon  this 
great  truth,  that  temptation  is  a  necessary 
element  in  our  spiritual  life.  '*  Blessed  is  the 
man  that  endureth  temptation,  for  when  he  is 
tried  he  shall  receive  the  crown  of  life  which 
the  Lord  hath  promised  to  them  that  love 
Him."  3 

Temptation  is  not  an  unmixed  evil,  a  stern 
and  unwelcome  necessity.  It  is  a  severe  but 
wise  and  needful  discipline  for  the  purifying  and 
strengthening  of  our  souls.  It  gives  us  an  oppor- 
tunity to  prove  our  love  and  faithfulness  to  God, 
It  is  the  timber  out  of  which  all  high  character  is 
to  be  built,  the  raw  material  from  which  we 
may  weave  the  robe  of  righteousness.  "  Though 
now  for  a  season,  if  need  be,  we  are  in  heavi- 
ness, through  manifold  temptations,"  we  ought 
greatly  to  rejoice  "that  the  trial  of  our  faith, 

I  II.  Kings  vi.  15,  17.  2  I.  Cor.  x.  13. 

3  St.  James  i.  1 2. 


The  Trial  of  Our  Faith.  25 

being  much  more  precious  than  of  gold  that 
perisheth,  though  it  be  tried  with  fire,  might  be 
found  unto  praise  and  honour  and  glory  at  the 
appearing  of  Jesus  Christ."  ' 

I  I.  St.  Peter  i.  6,  7. 


SECOND  WEEK  IN  LENT. 
t^  (^aefer^  ^tjer  t^rrxpiaiion. 


TUESDAY. 
DOES    GOD    LEAD    US    INTO    TEMPTATION  ? 


"  Lead  us  not  into  temptation." — S/.  Alatt.  vi.  ij. 

As  we  were  thinking  yesterday  of  the  import- 
ant part  which  temptation  plays  in  the  mak- 
ing of  a  Christian  character,  it  may  be  that  some 
of  us  asked  ourselves,  "  Why  then  do  we  pray  to 
be  delivered  from  temptation?  What  did  our 
Lord  mean  when  He  gave  us  that  prayer? "  It 
is  a  right  and  natural  inquiry.  We  must  try  to 
answer  it. 

Does  God  ever  lead  us  into  temptation?  Yes,  He 
does.  It  is  true  He  never  seeks  to  draw  us  into 
sin,  never  incites  us  to  evil.  It  is  only  devils 
and  wicked  men  who  do  that.  "Let  no  man 
say  when  he  is  tempted,  I  am  tempted  of  God, 
for  God  cannot  be  tempted  with  evil,  neither 
tempteth  He  any  man."  '     But  God  leads  men 

I  St.  James  i.  13. 


Docs  God  Lead  Us  into  Temptation  ?       2  / 

into  temptation,  that  is,  he  suffers  them  to  be 
placed  in  positions  where  they  Avill  be  put  to  the 
severest  test.  He  tried  the  faith  of  Abraham 
when  He  bade  him  go  up  to  Mt,  ]\Ioriah  and  sac- 
rifice his  son.  He  led  Balaam  into  temptation 
when  he  permitted  him  to  go  down  into  the 
land  of  Moab  with  the  king's  messengers.  Our 
Blessed  Lord  was  led  up  of  the  Spirit  into  the 
wilderness  to  be  tempted  of  the  devil.  ' 

It  is  the  same  with  us.  God  orders  all  our 
goings.  His  providence  extends  to  the  minutest 
details  of  our  daily  life.  We  are  continually  exer- 
cising our  free  will  in  the  choice  of  alternatives 
and  are  at  liberty  to  choose  whom  we  will  serve, 
but  the  opportunities  of  choice  are  all  given  us  by 
God.  We  cannot  make  our  own  environment, 
though  we  can  influence  it  somewhat.  God 
places  us  day  by  day  in  certain  circumstances. 
He  leads  us  through  certain  courses  of  life, 
which  are  perfectly  adapted  to  test  and  disci- 
pline each  of  us  and  determine  what  our  future 
is  to  be.  He  suffers  us  to  be  constantly  placed 
in  positions  where  we  are  severely  tried,  in 
order  that  we  may  be  educated  up  to  a  high 
standard  of  Christian  character.  Life  is  a  train- 
ing-school in  which  every  experience  is  divinely 
planned  to  teach  and  strengthen  us,  if  rightly 
met  and  used.     He  who  leads  us  into  it  has  pro- 

I  St  Matt.  iv.  I. 


28  Second  Week — Tuesday. 

vided  a  way  out  of  it,  has  given  us  the  strength 
to  master  it. 

Yes,  God  leads  us  into  temptation,  but  He  is 
ready  to  lead  us  out  of  it,  to  deliver  us  from  the 
evil.  If  we  were  left  to  ourselves,  we  should 
be  continually  running  into  danger.  There  are 
perils  on  every  hand,  though  we  are  too  much 
blinded  by  the  glare  and  glamour  of  this  world  to 
see  them  all.  Only  God  and  the  angels  know 
how  near  and  threatening  they  are.  We  lay  our 
plans,  and  mark  out  our  course  in  life,  and  set 
our  hearts  upon  the  pleasures  and  prizes  of  this 
world.  We  pursue  them,  we  strive  after  them, 
but  often  we  do  not  get  them.  What  we 
call  a  cruel  fate  thwarts  our  best  laid  plans, 
defeats  our  purposes,  snatches  the  prizes  of 
life  out  of  our  very  grasp.  Then  we  grieve 
and  murmur,  and  perhaps  rebel  against  God  and 
curse  Him.  But  we  make  an  awful  mistake  in 
doing  so.  The  things  we  desired  were  not  best 
for  us,  they  were  full  of  peril  for  our  souls,  they 
would  perhaps  have  dragged  us  down  to  ruin. 
God  in  His  good  providence  was  leading  us  out 
of  temptation,  turning  us  aside  from  the  way  of 
destruction,  snatching  us  from  the  brink  of  the 
precipice.  How  often  He  has  to  do  that !  And 
how  ungrateful  we  are,  how  slow  to  recognize 
the  hand  of  our  good  God  which  has  rescued  us ! 
If  we  could  only  see   things  as   they  are,  we 


Docs  God  Lead  Us  into  Temptation  ?       29 

should  realize  that  most  of  the  disappointments 
and  denials  which  we  have  to  bear  are  but  bless- 
ings in  disguise,  merciful  deliverances  from 
perils  into  which  we  were  determined  to  rush. 

This,  then,  is  what  we  mean  when  we  pray, 
"Lead  us  not  into  temptation": — Lead  us  on 
through  life,  not  in  the  way  which  we  would 
choose,  a  way  beset  with  temptation  and  dan- 
ger at  every  step,  but  guide  our  feet  into  the 
way  of  peace  ;  deliver  us  from  the  evil  into 
which  we  would  plunge  if  left  to  ourselves  ; 
lead  us  in  the  paths  of  righteousness  for  Thy 
Name's  sake  ;  turn  our  steps  aside  from  every 
pitfall  which  satan  has  dug  for  them  ;  suffer  us 
not  to  rush  on  in  rash  self-confidence,  but 
restrain  and  guide  us,  lest  we  dash  our  foot 
against  a  stone  or  sudden  destruction  come  upon 
us  unawares. 

Let  us,  then,  appropriate  to  ourselves  the 
words  of  one  of  our  sweetest  hymns,  in  which 
all  this  is  most  beautifully  expressed : 

"  Lead,  kindly  Light,  amid  the  encircling  gloom, 

Lead  Thou  me  on ! 
The  night  is  dark,  and  I  am  far  from  home, 

Lead  Thou  me  on ! 
Keep  Thou  my  feet !  I  do  not  ask  to  see 
The  distant  scene ;  one  step  enough  for  me. 


30  Second  Week — Tuesday 

"  I  was  not  ever  thus,  nor  prayed  that  Thou 

Shouldst  lead  me  on  ; 
I  loved  to  choose  and  see  my  path ;  but  now 

Lead  Thou  me  on  ! 
I  loved  the  garish  day ;  and,  spite  of  fears, 
Pride  ruled  my  will ;  remember  not  past  years. 

"  So  long  Thy  power  has  blest  me,  sure  it  still 

Will  lead  me  on, 
O'er  moor  and  fen,  o'er  crag  and  torrent,  till 

The  night  is  gone  ; 
And  with  the  morn  those  angel  faces  smile, 
Which  I  have  loved  long  since  and  lost  awhile." 

In  this  humble  and  chastened  spirit  let  us 
pray  very  earnestly  to  God  not  to  lead  us  into 
temptation  and  to  prevent  us  from  leading  other 
souls  astray. 


SECOND  WEEK  IN  LENT. 
Z^c  (Jllaef  erg  <Dt>er  temptation. 


WEDNESDAY, 

IS    IT    A    SIN    TO    BE    TEMPTED  ? 


"  My  son,  if  thou  come  to  serve  the  Lord,  prepare  thy  soul  for 
temptation." — Ecclesiastes  ii.  /. 

Is  it  a  sin  to  be  tempted  ?  Does  not  the  pres- 
ence of  temptation  indicate  that  there  is  some- 
thing wrong  within  us  ?  When  the  old  familiar 
temptations  keep  knocking  at  the  door  of  our 
heart,  is  it  not  our  fault  ?  If  we  were  living 
thoroughly  Christian  lives,  would  we  not  be  free 
from  the  temptations  which  now  so  easily  beset 
us  ?  No  doubt  we  have  all  questioned  thus  in 
the  honest  sincerity  of  our  hearts,  fearing  lest 
some  fault  or  weakness  of  our  own  is  responsible 
for  the  number  and  severity  of  the  temptations 
which  confront  us  day  by  day.  Of  course,  the 
temptations  which  are  sent  by  God  for  the  trial 
of  our  faith  do  not  imply  that  we  have  fallen 
into  sin.      But  do  the  persuasions  of  satan  to 


32  Second  Week — Wednesday. 

evil  prove  that  our  hearts  are  not  right  with 
God? 

When  such  questionings  arise  we  need  to 
be  reminded  that  temptation  is  the  lot  of 
man.  No  human  soul  has  ever  escaped  it.  None 
ever  will.  No  degree  of  sanctity  can  ever  lift 
us  out  of  its  reach.  The  greatest  saint  has  to 
meet  it  as  well  as  the  least.  The  holiest  lives 
have  been  beset  by  the  most  terrible  tempta- 
tions. Men  are  continually  falling  from  high 
places  into  bottomless  depths  of  guilt  and  de- 
spair. No  contrivance  of  man,  no  retirement 
from  the  world,  can  remove  us  out  of  the 
great  tempter's  reach.  A  long  life  of  holiness 
will  not  drive  satan  from  the  door  of  the  heart. 
He  may  find  entrance  even  at  the  last.  The 
eternal  Son  of  God  in  all  His  spotless  purity 
"was  tempted  in  all  points  like  as  we  are." 
Surely  satan,  who  dared  assail  Him,  will  never 
fear  nor  fail  to  attack  us.  Most  of  his  tempta- 
tions come  to  us  whether  we  will  or  no.  They 
are  guests  who  come  unbidden  to  the  door  of 
our  hearts  and  clamor  to  be  let  in.  If  we  re- 
ject them,  they  will  not  therefore  cease  to  come. 
So  long  as  life  lasts  we  shall  never  get  beyond 
their  reach.  They  form  a  part  of  the  life-long 
discipline  by  which  in  God's  good  providence 
our  souls  are  to  be  tried  and  trained.  Let  us 
comfort  ourselves  with  this  thought. 


Is  It  a  Sin  to  be  Tempted?  33 

But  at  the  same  time  we  must  remember 
that,  while  we  are  not  answerable  for  their 
coming,  we  are  responsible  if  they  stay.  The 
great  question  is  not  whether  we  are  visited  by 
temptation,  but  whether  we  welcome  it,  enter- 
tain it,  make  it  at  home  in  our  hearts.  It  is  no 
sin  to  be  tempted,  else  were  our  Lord  the  chief 
of  sinners.  But  it  is  a  deadly  sin  to  dally  with 
temptation,  to  trifle  with  it,  to  let  it  find  a 
lodging  in  our  minds.  Our  safety  and  our 
spiritual  health  depend  upon  our  promptness 
and  firmness  in  keeping  it  out  of  doors.  There 
is  a  deep  significance  in  what  is  told  us  of  our 
great  High  Priest,  "  He  was  in  all  points 
tempted  like  as  we  are,  yet  zvithout  sin."  ' 

Our  Lord's  temptation  teaches  us  not  to  be 
too  much  troubled  because  we  are  beset  by 
invitations  to  sin,  but  it  brings  another  lesson 
which  it  is  no  less  important  for  us  to  learn. 
Every  effort  to  build  up  our  spiritual  life  will 
be  met  by  an  attempt  of  the  powers  of  evil  to 
tear  it  down.  Satan's  intelligence  is  keen. 
He  need  not  trouble  himself  about  those  who 
are  not  trying  to  do  right.  But  the  moment  a 
human  soul  rouses  itself  to  serve  God,  enters 
upon  the  pursuit  of  holiness,  or  attempts  to 
reconsecrate  its  energies,  he  wakens  into  violent 
activity.  He  becomes  alarmed  lest  it  should 
I  Hebrews  iv.  15. 


34  Second  Week — Wednesday. 

succeed,  and  brings  every  artifice  to  bear  to 
thwart  its  plans.  He  fights  desperately,  if  need 
be.  He  besieges  that  soul  with  temptations 
such  as  it  never  dreamed  of  before.  He  tries 
to  leave  no  place  for  God  in  all  its  thoughts. 
He  flatters,  he  cajoles,  he  threatens  it.  Some- 
times he  feigns  defeat,  only  to  prepare  the 
way  for  a  more  desperate  attack  upon  some 
unguarded  point.  But  so  long  as  this  life  lasts, 
he  will  never  abandon  the  hope  of  victory. 

It  was  exactly  so  with  our  Blessed  Lord.  We 
hear  nothing  of  satan  until  He  reached  the 
threshold  of  His  ministry.  Then  it  was,  while 
He  was  gathering  together  all  His  powers  for 
the  great  work  which  He  had  come  to  do,  that 
satan  met  Him.  Not  in  the  ordinary  courses  of 
life,  but  in  the  sacred  seclusion  where  He 
sought  to  be  alone  with  the  Father,  in  the  very 
Holy  of  Holies  of  His  human  life,  satan  sought 
Him. 

It  will  be  so  with  us.  Every  effort  to  draw 
nigh  to  God  will  awaken  satan  to  renewed  ac- 
tivity. Every  season  of  grace  will  bring  him 
to  our  side.  Every  reconsecration  of  ourselves 
to  the  service  of  God  will  subject  us  to  a  renewed 
attack.  We  must  expect  it,  we  must  prepare 
for  it,  we  must  not  be  taken  off  our  guard. 
A  fierce  attack  of  temptation  generally  means, 
not  that  our  spiritual  life  is  dying  out,  but  that 


Is  It  a  Sin  to  be  Tempted?  35 

it  is  burning  brighter  and  that  satan  is  alarmed. 
A  wise  and  experienced  Christian  is  not  surprised 
when  his  efforts  to  do  right  involve  him  in 
renewed  temptations  to  do  wrong,  when  his 
attempt  to  keep  a  holy  'Lent  provokes  a  new 
and  violent  attack  of  the  enemies  who  lie  in 
wait  for  his  soul.  He  knew  beforehand  that  it 
would  be  so.  He  goes  serenely  on  his  way, 
watchful  but  undismayed,  and  puts  his  whole 
trust  in  God. 

"  i|VHRISTIAN  !  dost  thou  see  tnem 
^^     On  the  holy  ground, 
How  the  powers  of  darkness 

Rage  thy  steps  around  ? 
Christian  !  up  and  smite  them, 

Counting  gain  but  loss ; 
In  the  strength  that  cometh 

By  the  holy  Cross. 

Christian  !  dost  thou  feel  them, 

How  they  work  within. 
Striving,  tempting,  luring. 

Goading  into  sin  ? 
Christian  !  never  tremble ; 

Never  be  downcast ; 
Gird  thee  for  the  battle, 

Watch  and  pray  and  fast." 


SECOND  WEEK  IN  LENT. 
t^e  (^aeferg  ^er  temptation 


THURSDAY. 

TEMPTATION    TO    DISTRUST    GOD. 


"  If  thou  be  the  Son  of  God,  command  that  these  stones  be 
made  bread." — Si.  Matthraj  iv.  3. 

Let  us  meditate  during  the  remaining  days  of 
this  week  upon  the  temptations  of  our  Lord  in 
the  wilderness  and  try  to  learn  what  they  teach. 
Although  He  was  the  Son  of  God,  He  was  at 
the  same  time  the  Son  of  Man.  The  tempta- 
tions of  satan  appealed  to  His  human  nature, 
they  were  intensely  human,  "  such  as  are  com- 
mon to  man,"  exactly  such  as  we  have  to  meet 
and  overcome.  They  were  the  very  tempta- 
tions with  which  satan  is  plying  us  this  Lent. 

The  first  was  to  distrust  God.  At  the  close 
of  His  long  fast  Jesus  ''was  an  hungered." 
Thus  far,  no  doubt.  He  had  been  in  a  spiritual 
ecstasy,  so  absorbed  in  communion  with  His 
Father  that  the  wants  of  His  body  were  sus- 
pended for  the  time.    But  now  at  last  the  sharp 


Temptation  to  Distrust  God.  37 

pangs  of  hunger  begin  to  make  themselves  felt. 
Satan  sees  his  opportunity.  Pointing  to  the 
stones  of  the  desert,  he  exclaims:  "  If  thou  be 
the  Son  of  God,  command  that  these  stones  be 
made  bread."  His  meaning  is,  "God  has  up- 
held you  thus  far,  but  now  He  has  forsaken 
you.  He  has  left  you  alone  here  in  hunger  and 
thirst.  Give  me  some  proof  of  divine  power,  or 
I  shall  not  believe  that  you  are  His  Son.  If 
you  are  indeed  His  Son,  you  are  as  mighty  and 
as  full  of  resource  as  He.  You  have  no  need  to 
wait  for  Him  to  satisfy  your  wants.  You  are 
quite  equal  to  the  emergency.  Command  that 
these  stones  be  made  bread,  and  your  hunger 
will  instantly  be  satisfied." 

It  was  a  temptation  to  distrust  the  good 
providence  of  His  Father  and  work  a  miracle 
before  His  time.  But  our  Blessed  Lord  was 
not  to  be  seduced  into  such  an  act  of  self-will. 
He  had  come,  not  to  do  His  own  will,  but  the 
will  of  Him  who  sent  Him.  Until  His  Father 
was  ready  to  satisfy  His  hunger,  He  would  wait. 
However  great  the  suffering  might  be,  He  had 
an  inner  source  of  strength.  His  soul  was 
feeding  on  the  Word  of  God  and  the  needs  of 
His  body  sank  into  insignificance.  As  the  Son 
of  Man  He  knew  the  Hebrew  Scriptures 
thoroughly.  From  out  their  familiar  pages 
He  chose  the  words  with  which  to  make  reply. 


4  A  CJ 'i'>^^-^'^> 


38  Second  Week — Thursday. 

He  answered  and  said:  "It  is  written,  man 
shall  not  live  by  bread  alone,  but  by  every 
word  which  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of 
God."'  That  is,  ''There  is  a  higher  and 
more  precious  life  than  that  of  the  flesh.  The 
soul  does  not  live  by  bread  alone.  It  will  live, 
though  the  body  die.  It  feeds  upon  the  truth 
and  love  and  life  of  God.  It  finds  in  them 
such  satisfaction  that  the  vulgar  needs  of  the 
body  are  ignored.  God  is  feeding  my  soul  here 
in  the  wilderness,  and  that  spiritual  food  is  my 
meat  and  drink.  I  leave  it  to  Him  to  satisfy 
the  baser  needs  of  my  flesh."  Thus  did  our 
Lord  meet  the  temptation  to  distrust  the  divine 
providence  and  to  exalt  Himself. 

Is  satan  v/hispering  that  same  temptation  in 
our  ears  this  Lent?  God  has  set  before  us  this 
holy  season  as  a  time  for  retirement  from  the 
world,  for  mortifying  the  appetites  of  the  body, 
and  attending  to  the  wants  of  the  soul.  Does 
satan  tell  you  there  is  no  need  for  that?  Does 
he  assure  you  that  one  part  of  the  year  is  exactly 
the  same  as  another  and  none  more  holy  than 
the  rest?  Does  he  suggest  that  you  are  not  self- 
indulgent,  that  you  have  a  hard  enough  life  as 
it  is,  that  you  are  already  keeping  Lent  all  the 
year  round,  that  you  need  no  Lenten  discipline, 
no  self-imposed  rules?  Does  he  try  to  fill  your 
»  St.  Matthew  iv.  45  Deut.  viii.  3. 


Temptation  to  Distrust  God.  39 

mind  with  business,  with  the  cares  of  social  and 
family  life,  until  there  is  little  or  no  room  left 
for  thoughts  of  God  and   the  life  of  the  soul? 
He  will  do  so,  if  he  can.     You  may  be  sure  he 
is  cunningly  and  cruelly  manipulating  all   his 
forces  so  as  to  crush  out  and  kill  all  the  higher 
life  of  your  soul.     Be  on  your  guard.     Resist 
him   to  his  face.     Say  to  him,  "It  is  written, 
Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone,  but  by  every 
word   which   proceedeth   out  of  the  mouth   of 
God. "     "I  ivill  not  be  blinded  to  the  life  I  am  liv- 
ing.   It  is  a  high  and  holy  thing.     The  physical 
life  which  I  live  is  only  a  part  of  my  real  life. 
The  bread  which  perisheth  can  nourish  only  that 
lower   part  of  myself.     It  cannot  feed  my  soul. 
It   cannot   sustain   my  true,  my  higher  life.     I 
will   not   neglect   my  better  self.     I  must  care 
for  it  first  and  let  the  needs  of  the  body  come 
afterwards.     I    must    seek   first   the    Kingdom 
of  God  and  His    righteousness,   and   all  these 
things  shall  be  added  unto  me.  '    I  will  trust 
the  good  providence  of   my   God.     I   will  not 
neglect  and  starve  my  soul  in  order  that  I  may 
take  thought  what  I  shall  eat,  or  what  I  shall 
drink,   or  wherewithal   I   shall   be   clothed.     I 
will  use  this  holy  season  to  nourish  and  develop 
my  spiritual  powers.    I  will  feed  upon  the  Word 
of  God." 

I  St.  Matt   vi.  11. 


40  Second  Week — Thursday. 

Here  is  our  great  lesson  for  to-day.  When  we 
are  filled  with  pity  at  the  wants  of  men,  and  cry 
out  in  distress,  "Whence  shall  we  buy  bread 
that  these  may  eat  ?  "  —  when  the  sense  of  our 
own  needs  is  strong,  and  we  see  not  how  they 
are  to  be  satisfied,  then  comes  the  assurance  of 
a  Living  Bread. 

It  is  our  tempted  and  victorious  Lord  Himself 
who  tells  us,  '  '•  I  am  the  bread  of  life ;  he  that 
cometh  to  me  shall  never  hunger,  and  he  that 
believeth  on  me  shall  never  thirst."  "  And  the 
bread  which  I  will  give  is  my  flesh,  which  I  will 
give  for  the  life  of  the  world."  ^ 

Lord,  evermore  give  us  this  Bread. 

I  St.  John  vi.  35,  51. 


SECOND  WEEK  IN  LENT. 
Z^  (^aeferg  ^Dcr  temptation. 


FRIDAY. 

PRESUMPTION    AND    FALSE    CONFIDENCE. 


"If  thou  be  the  Son  of  God,  cast  thyself  down."— J/.  MnU. 
iv.  6. 

When  we  have  met  and  mastered  the  first  of 
Satan's  temptations  it  may  be  that  he  will  pre- 
sent to  us  a  second,  as  he  did  to  our  Lord. 
Having  found  that  Jesus  could  not  be  induced  to 
distrust  the  providence  of  God,  he  attempted  to 
make  him  presume  too  much  upon  it.  By  the 
exercise  of  supernatural  powers  of  motion,  he 
conveyed  our  Lord  into  the  Holy  City  and  set 
Him  "  on  a  pinnacle  of  the  temple,"  a  portico 
overlooking  the  brook  Kedron,  at  a  height  so 
great  that  the  eye  could  hardly  penetrate  to  the 
bottom  of  the  abyss.  He  dared  Him,  as  a  proof 
of  His  divinity,  to  cast  Himself  down,  assuring 
Him  in  the  words  of  Holy  Scripture  that,  if  He 
were  indeed  the  Son  of  God,  the  angels  would 
bear   Him  up.     It   was   a  bold    and    cunning 


42  Second  Week — Friday. 

attempt,  but  (like  the  first)  it  was  promptly  and 
crushing!}'  met  by  our  Lord,  His  reply  is  deeply 
vSignificant.  "It  is  written  again,  Thou  shalt 
not  tempt  the  Lord  thy  God."  ' 

Is  it  possible,  then,  for  us  to  tempt  God  ? 
Here  is  an  important  question  for  us  all.  If 
we  search  the  Scriptures,  we  shall  find  that  they 
speak  frequently  of  man  as  "tempting  God." 
The  Children  of  Israel  tempted  Him  in  the 
wilderness,  when  by  their  repeated  rebellion 
they  tried  His  patience  and  provoked  His  wrath. 
The  Scribes  and  Pharisees  by  their  foolish  and 
unlearned  questions  often  tempted  Christ.  It 
must  be  true,  then,  that  man  can  tempt  God. 
But  how  ?  Surely  not  by  enticing  Him  to  do 
wrong  ?  St.  James  has  solemnly  assured  us 
that  "  God  cannot  be  tempted  of  evil."  ^  How 
then  ?  By  putting  Him  needlessly  to  the  test  to 
see  what  He  will  do,  by  presumptuously  trying 
His  providence  to  see  how  far  it  will  go,  by 
thrusting  ourselves  into  danger  where  we  "have 
no  power  of  ourselves  to  help  ourselves,"  by 
perversely  going  contrary  to  His  will.  In  these 
and  other  like  ways  we  may  tempt  God,  try 
His  patience,  and  forfeit  the  right  to  expect  His 
help.  It  is  only  when  we  are  about  His  busi- 
ness, doing  His  will,  that  His  angels  will  bear 
us  up.  It  is  a  false  confidence  which  leads  us 
I  St.  Matt.  iv.  7.  2  St.  James,  i.  13. 


Prcsuviption  and  False  Confidence.         43 

to  reject  God  and  at  the  same  time  depend  upon 
His  help  to  save  us  in  every  time  of  need.  Here 
is  the  secret  of  most  of  our  falls  into  sin.  We 
rashly  and  wilfully  go  our  own  way  and  expect 
the  good  hand  of  our  God  to  bear  us  up.  We  try 
experiments  with  God,  seek  safety  or  happiness 
by  unlawful  ways,  put  ourselves  in  peril  need- 
lessly, and,  when  destruction  rushes  upon  us, 
expect  God  to  interfere  and  save  us  by  a 
miracle.  We  need  to  remember  that  it  is 
written,  "Thou  shalt  not  tempt  the  Lord  thy 
God." 

This  second  temptation  of  our  Lord  is  one 
with  which  we  shall  have  to  wrestle  this  Lent. 
Satan  will  try  to  make  us  satisfied  with  our 
spiritual  life  as  it  is.  He  will  tell  us  that  we 
are  living  very  well  before  the  eyes  of  men  and 
do  not  need  to  make  any  especial  efforts  after 
holiness.  He  will  whisper  that  God  is  loving 
and  merciful,  and  that  even  if  we  should  rebel 
against  Him  now,  somehow  He  will  bring  peace 
at  the  last.  "Cast  thyself  down,"  he  says, 
"  down  into  the  depths  of  carelessness  and  false 
confidence.  Be  not  afraid.  The  angels  will 
bear  thee  up.  If  thou  art  the  child  of  God,  he 
has  given  them  charge  concerning  thee.  They 
will  not  suffer  thy  soul  to  be  lost." 

It  is  a  dreadful  delusion  which  he  would  prac- 
tice upon  us.     He  wishes  to  make  us  think  that 


44  Second  Week — Friday. 

this  Lent  has  no  duties  for  us.  **  It  may  be 
needful  for  others,"  he  says,  "but  you  do  not 
need  it."  Let  us  not  be  deceived.  We  do  need 
this  Lent.  We  need  to  fast,  and  pray,  and 
humble  ourselves  in  the  sight  of  God.  We  need 
every  help  which  Christ  and  His  Church  can 
give.  This  Lent  is  a  time  of  trial  to  us.  We 
must  either  go  backward  or  forward.  Which 
will  it  be  ?  When  Easter  comes,  where  will  it 
find  us,  asleep  under  the  flattery  of  satan,  or 
watching  by  the  Cross  of  Christ  ? 

The  place  which  satan  chose  for  the  second 
temptation  of  our  Lord  was  the  most  sacred 
spot  on  earth,  His  Father's  House.  It  was  "a 
pinnacle  of  the  Temple,"  a  vast  and  dizzy 
height,  a  gallery  of  such  splendid  workmanship 
as  made  it  one  of  the  most  magnificent  things 
under  the  sun.  Standing  there  at  the  threshold 
of  His  ministry,  His  human  heart  must  have 
swelled  with  love  for  that  holy  place  and  with 
solemn  consciousness  of  the  mighty  powers 
which  slept  within  Him.  He  might  well  wish 
to  put  them  to  the  proof  at  once. 

It  is  often  so  with  us.  Satan  comes  to  us  as 
we  stand  upon  the  high  places  of  human  life,  the 
dizzy  heights  of  greatness  in  the  Church  or  in  the 
world,  and  bids  us  cast  ourselves  down.  Every 
human  dignity  is  a  place  of  peril  to  the  soul,  for 
the  great  tempter  stands  by  its  side.     **  God's 


Presumption  and  False  Confidence.         45 

manner  is,  when  He  meaneth  to  exalt  a  man,  He 
will  first  humble  him  and  make  him  low.  The 
devil's  manner  is,  we  see,  clean  contrary;  to  lift 
them  up  to  the  clouds,  that  He  may  bring  them 
down  to  the  grave,  yea,  to  the  lozvest grave.  He 
carrieth  them  the  higher  to  throw  them  down 
with  the  greater  violence."  So  said  old  Bishop 
Andrewes,  and  our  own  experience  proves  the 
truth  of  it.  Even  the  spiritual  elevation  which 
we  gain  in  a  well-kept  Lent  may  tempt  us  to 
pride  and  self-confidence.  Let  us,  therefore, 
**be  not  high-minded,  but  fear." 


SECOND  WEEK  IN  LENT, 
^^e  (^aeterg  dtjer  ^empfafion. 


SATURDAY. 
DOING    EVIL    THAT    GOOD    MAY    COME. 


"  All  these  things  will  I  give  thee,  if  thou  wilt  fall  down  and 
worship  me." — St.  Alatt.  iv.  g. 

The  final  temptation  which  satan  presented 
to  onr  Lord  was  even  bolder  than  the  rest. 
It  was  that  by  a  single  act  of  homage  to  him- 
self He  should  hasten  the  appointed  course 
of  events  and  win  the  whole  world  with  one 
stroke.  Exhibiting  to  Him  ''all  the  king- 
doms of  this  world  and  the  glory  of  them,"  he 
said  to  our  Lord  in  effect :  "  I  am  the  prince  of 
this  world;  these  kingdoms  are  now  mine. 
You  hope  to  gain  them.  But  how?  If  you 
are  to  wrest  them  from  ray  grasp,  you  have  no 
easy  task.  It  will  take  time  and  toil  and  suf- 
fering, and  you  will  win  only  a  partial  conquest 
in  the  end.  But  all  that  is  needless.  We  are 
here  alone.     Make  one  moment's  act  of  homage 


Doing  Evil  That  Good  May  Cojiie.        47 

to  me,  accept  them  from  my  hand,  and  you 
shall  have  them  now,  you  shall  have  them  all. 
There  is  no  need  of  shame  and  suffering.  All 
that  you  desire  is  in  your  grasp  to-day." 

Ah,  but  ivas  there  no  need?  The  word 
which  God  had  spoken  through  His  holy 
prophets  since  the  world  began,  could  He  let 
it  go  unfulfilled?  The  work  which  His  Father 
had  given  Him  to  do,  should  He  do  it  in  any 
other  than  the  Father's  way?  The  love  and 
loyalty  which  belong  to  God  alone,  could  they 
be  given  to  His  enemy?  The  worship  due  only 
to  Almighty  God,  should  it  be  given  to  a 
fallen  creature  of  His  Hand?  No.  To  do  as 
He  was  bid  would  be  to  stultify  Himself,  to  act 
a  lie,  to  violate  the  eternal  realities  which  He 
disclosed  when  He  affirmed,  "  I  and  my  Father 
are  one. "  ' 

What  if  our  Lord  had  yielded  then?  What  if 
the  thought  of  His  Cross  and  passion,  and  the 
vision  of  Calvary  had  overcome  Him  there? 
But  He  could  not  yield  and  be  Himself.  Firm 
as  the  mountain  rock  on  which  He  stood  were 
His  love  and  loyalty  to  God  and  man.  Clearly 
rang  out  His  voice  through  the  mountain  air: 
'*  Get  thee  hence,  satan;  for  it  is  written.  Thou 
shalt  worship  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  Him  only 
shalt  thou  serve."  ^  Baffled  and  beaten  in 
»  St.  John  X.  30.  2  St.  Matt.  iv.  lo. 


4^  Second  Week — Saturday. 

every  attempt,  satan  fled  away  and  left  our 
Lord  alone.  His  power  was  broken,  mankind 
was  freed  from  slavery,  the  first  great  victory 
of  the  Son  of  Man  was  won. 

The  same  temptation  often  comes  to  us,  the 
temptation  to  take  a  wrong  road  to  a  right  end, 
to  weary  of  God's  way  and  strike  out  a  short  cut 
for  ourselves,  to  go  our  own  way  rather  than 
God's  way.  It  is  a  subtle  temptation  and  is 
assisted  by  the  weakness  of  our  flesh.  The  paths 
of  righteousness  often  seem  to  us  very  long  and 
roundabout,  while  the  ways  of  sin  look  so  easy 
and  so  short.  The  tired  soul  faints  and  falters 
and  wonders  if  it  shall  ever  reach  the  end  and  be 
safe  home  at  last.  Then  satan  steals  softly  to 
our  side,  shows  how  steep  and  thorny  God's  way 
is,  how  hard  it  is  to  live  a  long  life  of  virtue 
and  self-denial  and  self-restraint.  He  brings 
up  in  long  array  all  the  trials  of  patience  and 
faith  and  love,  the  struggles  against  human 
weakness  and  passion  and  appetite.  He  sets 
them  all  before  us  and  says,  "It  is  too  much. 
You  can  never  endure  it  to  the  end.  God  has 
given  you  too  hard  a  task.  You  will  only  have 
a  long  life  of  anxiety  and  unrest  and  be  found 
wanting  at  the  last.  God  has  been  hard  with 
you,  I  will  be  easier.  Why  should  you  consume 
your  life  in  a  hopeless  struggle  after  perfection. 
Why  not  give  it  up  at  once  and  come  down  to 


Doing  Evil  That  Good  May  Conic.         49 

the  standard  of  the  world?  Then  the  way  shall 
be  made  short  and  plain.  Then  you  shall  have 
ease,  and  pleasure,  and  relief  from  care.  Cast 
to  the  winds  all  your  high  notions,  and  come 
and  live  as  others  do.  Come  and  be  at  rest. 
Bow  down  and  worship  me,  the  Prince  of  this 
World." 

How   many  have   hearkened   to   that   voice ! 
How  many  an  earnest  soul  has  grown  weary  in 
well  doing,  taken  a  look  forward  at  the  steepness 
of  the  way,  and  lain  down  at  satan's  feet!     Let 
it  not  be  so  with  any  of  us.     It  is  a  vain  and 
delusive  hope   which    satan  holds  out  to  you. 
He  cannot  give  you  rest.      This  world  cannot 
satisfy  you.     Your  soul  craves  something  higher 
than  they  have  to  give.     St.   Augustine  spoke 
for  us  all  when  he  cried  out,  "  Thou,  O  God, 
hast  made  us  for  thyself,  and  our  heart  is  rest- 
less, until  it  find  rest  in  thee."     There  is  a  true 
and  tender  voice  which  says,  "  Come  unto  Me, 
all  ye  that  are  weary  and  heavy-laden,  and  I 
will  give  you  rest."     The  soul  of  man  thirsts  for 
the  living  God  and  hungers  for  the  Bread  of 
Life.     God  alone  can  satisfy  its  desires.     **  It  is 
written,  thou  shalt  worship  the  Lord  thy  God, 
and    Him   only  shalt   thou   serve."  '      To   the 
faithful  soul   His  worship  is  sweet  beyond  all 
understanding  and  His  service  is  perfect  free- 
I  St.  Malt.  iv.  10;    Deut.  x.  20. 


50  Second  Week — Saturday. 

dom.  It  grows  in  peace  and  blessedness  as  life 
wears  on.  It  "  brighteneth  ever  more  and  more 
unto  the  perfect  day."  It  is  to  this  blessed 
service  that  the  Church  calls  us  this  Lent.  She 
bids  us,  resisting  and  mastering  all  the  tempta- 
tions of  satan,  go  forward  in  the  Royal  Way  of 
the  Holy  Cross,  follow  our  Lord  in  the  paths  of 
righteousness,  learning  the  rich  lessons  which 
He  waits  to  teach,  and  growing  day  by  day  in 
love  and  loyalty  to  Him  who  is  .t  once  our 
human  brother  and  our  God. 


THIRD  WEEK  IN    LENT. 


MONDAY. 

IS  THE  WORLD  OUR  FRIEND  OR  OUR  ENEMY? 


"  Know  ye  not  that  the  friendship  of  the  world  is  enmity  with 
God  ?  Whosoever  therefore  will  be  a  friend  of  the  world  is  the 
enemy  of  God." — St.  James  iv.  4. 

Let  our  meditation  this  week  be  upon  the 
Christian's  relation  to  the  world. 

What  do  we  mean  by  "the  world?"  What 
did  our  Blessed  Lord  mean  by  that  phrase  which 
was  so  often  on  His  lips?  He  meant  not  simply 
this  created  universe  in  which  we  live;  He  did 
not  mean  the  whole  human  race;  He  did  not 
confine  His  meaning  to  the  wicked  followers  of 
satan,  the  Prince  of  this  World;  and  yet  He 
meant  something  very  real,  very  powerful,  very 
dangerous.  He  had  in  mind  the  great  worldly 
world,  which  lives  for  itself,  practically  ignores 
God,  sets  up  its  own  standards  of  right  and 
wrong,  and  attempts  to   dominate   all   human 


52  Third  Week — Monday, 

life  and  to  enslave  every  soul  of  man.  Such 
was  His  meaning  when,  on  the  eve  of  His  pas- 
sion, He  rejoiced  in  spirit,  foresaw  His  victories 
over  the  Cross  and  the  tomb,  and  bid  His  disci- 
ples "Be  of  good  cheer,  I  have  overcome  the 
world."  ' 

Must  we,  like  our  Lord,  "overcome  the 
world?"     Yes.     The  world  is  our  enemy. 

1.  There  is  much  evil  in  the  world.  Many 
of  its  most  cherished  customs,  much  of  its 
philosophy,  most  of  its  standards  of  right  and 
wrong,  a  great  deal  of  its  life,  are  wrong  in  the 
sight  of  God.  While  hardly  anything  in  the 
world  is  utterly  bad,  hardly  anything  is  wholly 
good.  Evil  is  present  everywhere.  As  Chris- 
tians we  must  not  blind  ourselves  to  it,  must  re- 
sist it,  must  overcome  it.  We  cannot  be  neutral 
in  the  warfare  between  good  and  evil  which  is 
ever  going  on.  So  far  as  the  world  is  evil,  we 
must  be  at  enmity  with  the  world,  if  we  would  be 
friends  of  God. 

2.  But  this  is  not  all.  We  are  forced  into  a 
position  of  antagonism,  not  only  to  the  evil 
which  is  in  the  world,  but  to  the  world  itself. 
It  is  attractive,  seductive,  absorbing,  exacting. 
It  wants  the  whole  heart  and  life  of  man.  It 
claims  all  his  time  and  thought  and  care  for 
itself.     It  demands  his  all.     It  does  not  recog- 

I  St.  John  XV.  12,, 


Is  the  World  Our  Friend  or  Our  Enemy?  53 

nize  any  other  world  or  any  higher  life.  It  has 
its  own  standards  of  morality,  its  own  philoso- 
phy of  life,  its  own  way  of  looking  at  things. 
It  cannot  see  beyond  its  own  horizon,  nor  does 
it  acknowledge  that  there  is  any  '*  beyond."  It 
is  quite  sufficient  unto  itself. 

To  all  this  the  Christian  cannot  submit.  He 
takes  a  wider,  loftier  view.  He  is  a  citizen  of 
two  worlds — the  seen  and  the  unseen.  He  is 
in  this  world  but  not  of  it.  He  has  learned 
how  short,  how  uncertain,  how  unsatisfying  the 
world's  life  is  at  the  best.  He  has  found  out 
that  "the  hope  of  the  ungodly  is  like  thistle- 
down that  is  blown  away  with  the  wind,  like  a 
thin  froth  that  is  driven  away  with  the  storm, 
like  as  the  smoke  which  is  dispersed  here  and 
there  with  a  tempest,  and  passeth  away  as  the 
remembrance  of  a  guest  that  tarrieth  but  a 
day."  '  The  great  realities  of  life  are  not 
material  but  spiritual.  The  things  which  shall 
endure  are  not  those  of  the  visible  but  of  the 
invisible  world.  Human  life  is  greater, 
grander  than  the  world  acknowledges  it  to  be. 
To  adopt  the  standards  of  this  world,  to  live  as 
though  it  were  all,  to  confess  its  claims, would 
be  for  a  Christian  not  only  the  height  of 
absurdity  but  treason  against  God.  Living 
for  this  world  has  been  called  "The  Great 
I  Wisdom  V,  14, 


54  Third  Week — Monday. 

Insanity."  It  is  an  insane  thing  for  one  who 
has  eternity  before  him  to  act  as  if  his  span  of 
life  were  at  the  utmost  only  three  score  years 
and  ten.  It  is  worse  than  insanity  for  one  who 
has  countless  treasures  from  God  given  him  in 
trust  for  himself  and  those  who  come  after  him, 
to  let  them  all  go  and  be  lost  in  order  that  he 
may  grasp  a  few  gilded  trinkets  just  for  to-day. 
If  we  did  not  see  it  done  every  day,  we  should 
consider  it  absurd  and  impossible  that  those 
who  ''profess  and  call  themselves  Christians," 
should  act  for  one  moment  as  though  this 
world  were  all.  And  yet  so  great  are  the 
fascinations  of  this  world,  such  power  has  it  to 
blind  the  eyes  and  harden  the  heart,  that  out 
of  all  mankind  there  have  been  but  few  who 
have  learned  to  estimate  it  at  its  real  worth 
and  to  live  the  larger  life,  only  a  few  whose 
plans  and  hopes  and  fears  are  not  centered  in 
this  world.  And  even  those  few  are  some- 
times very  faint  and  faltering  in  their  re- 
sistance to  its  claims,  and  it  requires  all 
the  severe  but  loving  discipline  which  God 
knows  how  to  give  to  wean  them  from  the 
world. 

Let  us  then  face  this  question  to-day:  Are 
we  friends  of  the  world  or  of  God  ?  There  is 
enmity  between  the  two,  and  we  must  make 
our  choice.     "  Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  mam- 


Is  the  World  Our  Friend  or  Our  Enejny  f  5  5 

mon."  '  If  we  are  to  be  friends  of  God,  we 
must  overcome  the  world,  must  resist  its  seduc- 
tions, must  refuse  to  be  dazzled  by  its  glamour, 
must  use  it  as  not  abusing  it,  must  master  it 
and  not  let  it  master  us.  Let  us  squarely  face 
the  issue.  Worldliness  is  opposed  to  godliness. 
The  worldly  world  is  our  enemy.  It  will  blind 
us,  drag  us  down,  and  ruin  us,  if  possible.  Its 
gross  and  carnal  views  of  life  are  a  deadly 
miasma  which  will  poison  and  kill  our  souls. 
Its  smiles  are  full  of  danger  and  deceit.  Its 
friendship  and  its  prizes  cannot  satisfy  our 
souls.  "All  that  is  in  the  world,  the  lust  of 
the  flesh,  and  the  lust  of  the  eyes,  and  the 
pride  of  life,  is  not  of  the  Father,  but  is  of  the 
world.  And  the  world  passeth  away,  and  the 
lust  thereof;  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  God 
abideth  forever."  ^ 

1  St.  Matt.  vi.  24.  2  I.  St.  John  ii,  16,  17. 


THIRD  WEEK  IN   LENT. 


TUESDAY. 

OVERCOMING  THE  EVIL  THAT  IS  IN  THE  WORLD. 


"  Be  not  overcome  of  evil,  but  overcome  evil  with  good." — 
Jior/i.  xii.  21. 

We  agreed  yesterday  that  there  is  a  vast  mass 
of  evil  in  the  world  which  must  be  overcome. 
The  one  great,  evident,  awful  fact  about  the 
world's  life  is  that  it  is  full  of  sin.  The  great 
world-religions  ignore  this  side  of  human  life, 
and  provide  nothing  which  can  wash  out  the 
"damned  spot"  of  sin  from  the  hands  and 
hearts  of  man.  It  is  only  Christianity  which 
undertakes  the  gigantic  task  of  baptizing  in  the 
waters  of  life  a  world  that  is  "  dead  in  trespasses 
and  sins."  It  alone  is  based  upon  a  recognition 
of  the  extent,  the  variety,  the  tenacity,  the  hor- 
ror of  human  sin.  It,  unlike  them  all,  has  a 
God  who  is  of  *'  purer  eyes  than  to  behold  evil, 
and  cannot  look  upon  iniquity."  '    It  regards  sin 

»  Habakkuk  i.  13. 


Overcommg  the  Evil  That  is  in  the  World.  5  7 

as  a  subtle,  powerful,  living  antagonist,  to  be 
subdued  and  slain.  Just  as  once  "there  was 
war  in  heaven,  Michael  and  his  angels  fighting 
against  the  great  dragon,"  so  now  there  is  war 
on  earth  between  the  followers  of  Christ  and 
"that  old  serpent,  called  the  devil,  and  satan, 
which  deceive th  the  whole  world."  ^ 

But  how  is  this  warfare  to  be  carried  on,  and 
by  what  means  is  the  victory  to  be  gained. 
Shall  we  overcome  the  evil  in  the  world  by 
fiercely  attacking  it,  by  fighting  doggedly  and 
desperately  against  it,  by  violently  uprooting  it, 
by  driving  it  out  of  the  world  and  forcing  it 
home  to  hell  ? 

Yes  and  no.  Let  us  learn  a  lesson  here  from 
our  Lord.  One  of  the  chief  purposes  for  which 
He  came  into  this  world  as  man  was  that  He 
might  overcome  the  evil  that  was  in  it.  How 
did  He  proceed?  Did  He  begin  at  once  a  fierce 
crusade  against  all  the  evil  powers  of  the  world  ? 
Did  He  attack  evil  wherever  it  showed  its  head  ? 
Did  He  bring  to  bear  His  supernatural  powers 
to  annihilate  it  and  banish  it  from  the  world  ? 
No.  He  rebuked  some  of  its  grosser  and  more 
awful  forms  when  He  came  face  to  face  with 
them.  He  warned  mankind  of  the  results  of 
jin.  But  He  did  not  undertake  to  cast  out  the 
ievils  all  at  once.     What  He  did  was  this.     He 

I  Rey.  xii.  7-9. 


58  Third  Week — Tuesday. 

lived  a  quiet,  hidden  life  of  spotless  purity,  free 
from  all  taint  of  sin,  without  even  the  slightest 
appearance  of  evil — a  perfect  life.  And  that 
was  all.  He  simply  set  in  the  midst  of  this  evil 
world  a  holy  life,  and  left  it  to  do  its  work. 
And  yet  He  said,  "  I  have  overcome  the  world." 
He  knew  that  the  good  which  He  had  brought 
into  the  world  would  overcome  the  evil.  He 
said  with  confidence,  "  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will 
draw  all  men  unto  me."  ' 

Here,  then,  we  have  our  Divine  Ensample  of 
the  way  in  which  we  are  to  overcome  the  evil 
in  the  world;  not  by  forcibly  emptying  the 
world  of  evil,  but  by  quietly  filling  it  with  good. 
Our  work  is  not  so  much  negative  as  positive, 
not  so  much  destructive  as  constructive.  What 
we  have  to  do  is  not  so  much  to  batter  down  the 
evil  as  to  build  up  the  good. 

This  is  true  both  of  the  Christian  Church  as  a 
whole  and  of  every  individual  member  of  the 
same. 

I.  It  is  true  of  the  Church.  She  must  work 
as  God  works.  She  must  be  patient,  wise,  and 
confident  in  her  strength.  Her  chief  work  is, 
not  to  uproot  the.  rank  weeds  of  evil,  but  to 
plant  and  water  the  seeds  of  good.  She  is  not 
bound  at  once  to  reform  every  abuse,  right  every 
wrong,  and  banish  all  evil  from  the  world.     She 

1  St.  John  xii.  32. 


1 


Overcoming  the  Evil  That  is  in  the  World.  $9 

must  not  "  strive,  nor  cry,  nor  lift  up  her 
voice  in  the  streets,"  in  noisy  resistance  to 
her  enemies.  Her  mightiest  works,  like  those 
of  God  in  nature,  will  be  done  in  silence  and 
secrecy.  Her  most  splendid  victories  will  be 
wrought  by  the  w^eapons  of  faith  and  prayer  and 
suffering  by  the  quiet  multiplication  of  good 
until  evil  is  overcome. 

2.  It  is  so  with  every  souL  If  we  should  drive 
out  the  evil  and  leave  our  spiritual  house  swept 
and  garnished,  but  empty,  our  last  state  would 
be  worse  than  the  first.  We  should  soon  have 
seven  devils  instead  of  one.  Our  only  safety 
lies  in  the  multiplication  of  the  good  that  is  in 
us  until  the  evil  is  permanently  crowded  out. 
Many  an  earnest  Christian  rouses  himself  as 
Lent  comes  round  for  a  desperate  struggle 
against  his  besetting  sins,  concentrates  all  his 
energies  upon  them,  and  fights  them  manfully. 
This  is  well,  but  it  is  not  all  he  has  to  do.  His 
Lent  must  have  its  positive  side.  He  must  not 
only  break  off  bad  habits,  he  must  build  up  good 
ones  in  their  place.  He  must  not  only  mortify 
his  flesh,  he  must  feed  his  soul  upon  the  Word 
of  God.  He  must  not  only  forsake  satan,  he 
must  *'  draw  nigh  to  God."  He  ought  not  to 
dissipate  his  energies  in  violent  combat  when  it 
would  have  been  wiser  to  expend  them  in  pro- 
viding food  and  nourishment  for  his  soul.  There 


6o  Third  Week — Tuesday. 

is  a  judicious  economy  in  Christian  living 
whose  maxim  is  not,  "  Drive  out  the  evil,"  but 
"  Bring  in  the  good."  Genuine  moral  good- 
ness is  the  only  power  which  can  overcome  evil. 
The  swiftest  and  surest  way  to  banish  the  powers 
of  evil  from  the  heart  is  to  reinforce  and  fortify 
the  powers  of  good  until  they  are  strong  enough 
to  win  for  themselves  a  decisive  victory. 

Let  us,  then,  labor  quietly  but  very  dili- 
gently to  fill  our  own  lives,  our  community,  our 
Church,  and  the  world  (so  far  as  we  can)  with 
pure  and  positive  goodness,  and  leave  the  re- 
sults to  God.  When  evil  confronts  us,  let  us 
resist  it  bravely  with  such  weapons  as  God 
gives.  But  let  our  chief  reliance  be  placed 
in  the  grace  of  God  which  will  enable  us  to 
"overcome  evil  with  good." 


THIRD  WEEK  IN    LENT. 


WEDNESDAY. 

OVERCOMING  THE  WORLD    BY  FAITH. 


"  This  is  the  victory  that  overcometh  the   world,  even  our 
faith."—/.  St.  John  v.  4. 

During  the  remainder  of  this  week  let  us 
study  how  the  fascinations  of  this  world  are  to 
be  overcome,  how  the  heart  of  man  may  be 
lifted  up  out  of  the  visible  into  the  invisible 
world. 

This  beautiful  world,  which  has  so  much 
to  charm  the  eye,  to  occupy  the  mind,  to 
delight  the  heart,  so  much  in  it  that  is  good 
along  with  the  evil,  tempts  mankind  upon 
its  good  as  well  as  on  its  evil  side.  The 
good  that  is  in  the  world  is  almost  as  danger- 
ous as  the  evil  is.  The  innocent  enjoyments 
of  human  life,  the  pleasures  of  society, 
the  engrossing  activities  of  the  business  world, 
human    friendship   and     family   ties,    all    that 


62  Third  Week— Wednesday. 

attracts  and  delights  us  here  below,  all  these 
have  their  dangers  for  the  soul.  We  are 
permitted  by  God  to  have  them,  to  enjoy  them. 
But  they  are  not  all ;  they  are  only  foretastes  of 
what  God  has  in  store  for  us.  They  are  like 
the  object  lessons  of  a  kindergarten  school,  to 
educate  us  to  live  a  larger  life,  to  fit  us  for  a 
higher  sphere.  We  must  not  grow  too  much 
attached  to  them,  must  not  cling  to  them  too 
long,  must  recognize  them  as  only  a  means  to 
an  end.  We  must  not  be  like  men  and  women 
who  insist  on  lingering  in  the  kindergarten 
under  the  impression  that  it  is  real  life.  We 
must  realize  the  littleness,  the  transitoriness, 
the  unreality  of  this  life  considered  simply  in 
itself,  and  grasp  the  great  fact  that  "  the  things 
which  are  seen  are  temporal,  but  the  things 
which  are  not  seen  are  eternal."  ' 

We  must  learn  to  "  set  our  afEections  on  things 
above,  not  on  things  on  the  earth."  ^  We  must 
be  emancipated  from  all  low,  and  narrow,  and 
merely  worldly  views  of  human  life. 

Now,  how  is  this  to  be  done?  It  can  only  be 
by  getting  the  eyes  wide  open  to  spiritual 
things,  by  getting  a  firm  grasp  of  eternal  truths, 
by  gaining  motives  which  will  exalt,  and  dignify, 
and  enlarge  our  life  out  of  worldliness  into  other 
worldliness.  There  is  but  one  thing  that  can  do 
I  II.  Cor.  iv.  i^  2  Col.  iii.  2. 


Overcoming  the  World  by  Faith.  63 

this,  namely,  the  Christian  Faith.  Grasp  that, 
receive  it  into  your  mind,  hold  it  in  your  heart, 
work  it  out  in  your  life,  and  you  have  overcome 
the  world.  You  have  introduced  into  your  life 
principles  which  will  make  it  unworldly.  You 
have  by  one  blow  broken  the  bonds  of  worldli- 
ness  and  emancipated  your  soul.  Every  one 
who  has  truly  held  the  Christian  Faith  has  over- 
come the  world.  That  faith  is  an  active  prin- 
ciple which  elevates  and  ennobles  human  life, 
and  deals  the  death  blow  to  all  that  is  of  the 
earth  earthy.  It  is  slowly,  but  surely,  trans- 
forming the  world.  It  sets  up  this  triumphant 
claim,  "  The  earth  is  the  Lord's,  and  the  fullness 
thereof."  • 

Thus  it  consecrates  and  hallows  this  world 
and  all  that  is  in  it,  and  converts  them  to  sacred 
and  unearthly  uses. 

This  was  true  even  of  the  rudimentary  and  im- 
perfect faith  of  God's  people  under  the  Old  Cove- 
nant. Read  the  eleventh  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews  and  see  how  it  "subdued  kingdoms, 
wrought  righteousness,  obtained  promises, 
stopped  the  mouths  of  lions,  quenched  the  vio- 
lence of  fire,  escaped  the  edge  of  the  sword, 
waxed  valiant  in  fight,  turned  to  flight  the 
armies  of  the  aliens,"  and  won  countless 
victories   over    the   world,    and    then    tell   me 

I  I.  Cor.  X.  26. 


64  Third  Week — Wednesday. 

if  the  Christian  Faith  must  not  do  all  this 
and  more.  Tell  me  if  it  hath  not  power  to 
wean  man  from  the  world,  to  satisfy  and  save 
his  soul. 

The  victory  of  our  faith  over  the  world  is  sure 
and  it  is  swift.  When  once  that  faith  is  grasped, 
the  victory  is  won.  Let  the  eternal  realities 
dawn  upon  the  soul,  let  the  life  become  hid  with 
Christ  in  God;  "  only  believe,"  and  you  have 
shattered  the  world's  weapons  with  one  blow. 
Take  unto  you  the  strong  and  well-rounded,  and 
brightly  polished  shield  of  the  Christian  Faith, 
and  your  victory  is  assured,  it  is  already  won. 
The  Christian  armour  is  not  out  of  date.  The 
weapons  of  the  spiritual  warfare  have  not 
changed.  The  shield  of  faith,  which  all  the 
triumphant  saints  of  God  have  used,  will  protect 
us  and  save  us  as  it  did  them.  The  dint  of  past 
conflict  which  it  bears  only  assures  us  of  its 
power  to  repel  our  present  foes.  It  will  quench 
all  the  glittering  fascinations  of  the  world,  and 
be  found  proof  against  them  at  every  point. 
Behind  it  the  Christian  is  in  another  world.  He 
"endures,  as  seeing  Him  who  is  invisible." 
However  fiercely  the  battle  rages  round,  he  is 
calm  and  undismayed.  Amidst  its  din  and  noise 
he  is  at  peace,  for  his  soul  is  stayed  upon  God, 
and  he  does  not  fear  what  man  can  do  unto  him. 
"  He  will  not  be  afraid  of  any  evil  tidings,  for 


Overcoming  the  World  by  Faith.  65 

his   heart  standeth   fast  and   believeth   in   the 
Lord."  ' 

Here,  then,  is  the  divine  method  of  overcom- 
ing the  world.  In  so  far  as  we  follow  it  we 
shall  come  off  conquerors,  and  more  than  con- 
querors in  the  end.  The  reason  why  we  do  not 
gain  an  immediate  victory  is  because  of  the 
littleness  of  our  faith.  We  need  to  go  back  to 
apostolic  times  and  learn  from  holy  men  of  old 
how  to  hold  the  Christian  Faith  in  all  its  purity 
and  power.  Let  us  resolve  to-day  to  strive  for 
a  reasonable,  a  religious,  a  living  faith.  Let  us 
be  satisfied  with  nothing  short  of  the  Holy 
Catholic  and  Apostolic  Faith  firmly  grasped, 
implicitly  believed,  and  held  as  our  most 
precious  heritage,  and  then  the  creeds  of  the 
Church  will  become  our  songs  of  victory. 

I  Psalm  cxii.  7. 


THIRD  WEEK  IN  LENT. 

THURSDAY. 

NONCONFORMITY    TO    THE    WORLD. 


"  Be  not  conformed  to  this  world." — Romans  xii.  2. 

Closely  akin  to  our  meditation  of  yesterday 
is  that  which  we  are  to  make  to-day. 

When  we  were  baptized  we  made  a  solemn 
vow  and  covenant  with  God  that  we  would 
renounce  the  world.  We  did  not  mean  that 
henceforth  we  would  have  nothing  to  do  with 
the  world.  We  meant  that  we  would  renounce 
its  authority,  and  repudiate  its  claim  to  rule  in 
our  hearts  and  lives.  We  meant  that  we  would 
live,  not  according  to  the  standards  of  the  world, 
but  according  to  the  ensample  of  a  godly  life 
given  us  by  our  Blessed  Lord. 

We  did  not  renounce  the  beautiful  in  nature 
and  art.  God  means  us  to  love  and  enjoy  all 
that  is  beautiful,  in  so  far  as  it  is  good  and  true. 
The  natural^world  is  a  great  "pictorial  Bible" 
in  which,  no  less  than  in  God's  written  Word,  is 


^Nonconformity  to  the  World.  67 

revealed  the  mind  of  Christ.  '*  The  invisible 
things  of  Him  from  the  creation  of  the  world 
are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by  the  things 
that  are  made,  even  His  eternal  power  and 
God-head."  ' 

If  only  we  have  eyes  to  see,  the  material 
universe  can  teach  us  much  about  God  and  His 
workings  in  the  world.  Likewise  human  art,  if 
it  is  fine  and  high,  being  inspired  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  is  not  to  be  renounced. 

We  did  not  renounce  the  love  of  humanity. 
God  wills  us  to  love  our  fellowmen — to  think 
highly  of  man  as  man.  Mankind  is  made  in  the 
image  of  the  Most  High  God,  redeemed  by  the 
eternal  sacrifice  of  Christ,  ordained  to  the  most 
glorious  destiny.  Even  in  his  degradation  and 
his  deepest  sin,  he  is  not  to  be  renounced.  We 
are  bound,  as  the  children  of  God,  to  have  a 
warm,  true  love  of  humanity. 

What  then  did  we  renounce  ?  The  sovereignty 
of  this  world.  We  determined  that  the  powers 
of  this  world  should  not  govern  us.  We  affirmed 
that  we  are  "citizens  of  a  better  country,  that 
is,  an  heavenly." 

The  world  is  very  lordly  in  its  demands  for 
our  allegiance.  It  has  set  up  its  own  stand- 
ards of  life  to  which  it  expects  us  to  conform. 
It  has  but  scant  courtesy  for  any  principles  of 

I  Romans  i.  20. 


68  Third  Week — Thurselay. 

human  conduct  but  its  own.  It  smiles,  sneers, 
scoffs  at  any  one  who  violates  its  rules  of  policy. 
It  regards  any  deviation  from  its  customs  as 
something  like  insanity.  It  claims  the  right  to 
direct  and  dominate  the  whole  life  of  man. 

The  influence  of  the  world  is  a  very  subtle 
and  pervasive  thing.  The  great  city  of  London 
generates  an  atmosphere  of  its  own.  It  fills  the 
air  with  fog  and  smoke  and  dust,  so  that  the 
atmosphere  of  London  is  almost  as  different 
from  that  of  the  woods  and  fields  as  darkness 
is  from  light.  It  permeates  everything  and 
colors  the  whole  life  of  the  metropolis.  Just  so 
"the  world"  creates  an  atmosphere  of  its  own 
which  enshrouds  and  colors  all  human  life.  We 
breathe  it  in  with  every  breath.  It  creeps  like 
a  miasma  into  the  soul.  It  has  marvelous  power 
to  blind  the  eyes,  and  clog  the  mind,  and  color 
all  our  thoughts  of  God.  Occasionally  men  rise 
above  it  and  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  clear  sky 
of  truth,  and  see  the  great  lights  which  God 
has  kindled  there.  But  for  the  most  part  their 
whole  life  is  seen  through  this  hazy  atmosphere 
of  worldline^s. 

Let  us  notice  some  of  its  characteristics : 
I.  It  clings  close  to  earth.     There  is  nothing 
elevating  about  it.     It  is  of  the  earth  earthy.    It 
cannot  rise  above  the  lower  levels  of  life  and 
conduct. 


Nonconformity  to  the  World.  69 

2.  It  forms  a  low  estimate  of  human  life,  makes 
it  only  a  thing  of  to-day,  robs  it  of  its  highest 
dignity,  and  leaves  it  no  longer  life,  an  exist- 
ence and  nothing  more. 

3.  It  hides  God  from  human  eyes,  belittles  Him, 
distorts  His  splendid  qualities,  dwindles  Him 
into  a  cold  abstraction,  a  "  deity,"  an  impersonal 
** force  that  makes  for  righteousness." 

4.  It  deceives  the  spiritual  sight,  magnifies 
the  things  of  this  world  out  of  their  true  pro- 
portion, and  exaggerates  their  real  worth. 

As  Christians  we  cannot  conform  to  this 
worldly  world,  we  must  not  be  misled  by  it. 
Our  views  of  life  are  to  be  got  not  from  it,  but 
from  God.  Our  religious  principles  are  higher 
than  its  rules  of  policy.  Our  Rock  is  not  as 
its  rock.  Our  ways  are  not  as  its  ways.  We  live 
in  a  different  atmosphere,  one  created  for  us 
by  the  Christian  Church,  a  purer,  healthier, 
brighter  environment.  We  are  governed  by 
higher  motives;  we  take  larger  views  of  life; 
we  cannot  always  bow  to  public  opinion;  we 
must  often  appeal  from  the  low  and  hasty 
judgment  of  the  world  to  the  just  judgment  of 
that  Great  Day  when  God  shall  be  all  in  all. 
Unless  such  is  our  attitude  towards  the  world, 
we  are  Christians  only  in  name.  If  we  are 
Christians  indeed  and  in  truth,  we  have  deliber- 
ately, definitely,  and  decisively  resolved  within 


70  Third  Week — TJiursday. 

ourselves  that  we  are  not  to  be  conformed  to 
the  groveling  standards  of  "  the  world,"  but 
governed  by  the  eternal  principles  of  the  Gospel 
of  God;  we  have  renounced  the  world  as  our 
ruler  and  our  judge,  and  henceforth  will  cleave 
only  unto  God. 

Let  us  deepen  within  us  to-day  the  sense 
of  our  separation  from  the  world,  and  reconse- 
crate our  whole  self  to  God. 


^1 


THIRD   WEEK  IN  LENT. 


FRIDAY. 

CRUCIFYING    THE    WORLD. 


"  God  forbid  that  I  should  glory,  save  in  the  cross  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  the  world  is  crucified  unto  me  and  I  unto 
the  world." — Ga/.  vi.  14. 

There  were  some  of  the  first  Christians  who 
felt  ashamed  of  the  death  to  which  their  Master 
had  been  put.  Not  so  St.  Paul.  To  him  it 
seemed  altogether  glorious.  For  him  the  Cross 
was  the  central  feature,  the  dominant  figure  in 
all  human  history.  He  gloried  in  it  above  all 
things.  It  seemed  to  the  world  unutterably 
shocking  and  shameful.  To  him  it  seemed  the 
most  splendid  thing  in  all  the  universe.  It  was 
a  tremendous  object  lesson  of  the  love  of  God. 
It  was  the  great  power  of  God  unto  salvation. 
It  was  the  means  by  which  Christ  would  draw 
all  men  unto  Him.  Its  outstretched  arms  would 
gather  in  the  whole  world.  He  foresaw  how  it 
would  "tower  o'er  the  wrecks  of  time,"  how 


72  Third  Week — Friday. 

"all  the  light  of  sacred  story  would  gather 
round  its  head  sublime."  All  his  views  of  life 
and  death  and  eternity,  were  influenced  by  the 
Cross,  It  seemed  never  to  be  absent  from  his 
thoughts. 

When,  therefore,  he  imdertook  to  define  his 
relations  to  the  world,  he  could  only  see  them 
in  the  light  of  the  Cross,  he  could  not  think  of 
them  apart  from  the  great  transaction  upon 
Calvary,  he  could  only  describe  them  in  terms 
of  the  Cross.  His  language  is  somewhat  foreign 
to  the  spirit  of  our  age,  but  it  is  the  mother 
tongue  of  the  Christian  heart.  His  words  are 
strikingly  vivid  and  significant. 

Looking  first  upon  the  world's  side  of  those 
relationships,  he  exclaims,  "  The  world  is  cruci- 
fied unto  me."     What  does  He  mean  by  that? 

When  Christ  hung  upon  the  Cross,  the  world 
thought  it  was  condemning  and  crucifying  Him. 
It  was  really  condemning  and  crucifying  itself.  It 
was  the  world  that  led  Him  to  the  Cross  and  hung 
Him  there,  that  drove  the  cruel  nails,  that  chal- 
lenged Him  to  come  down  from  the  Cross,  that 
surged  round  its  base  and  gloried  in  his  shame. 
It  was  the  world,  not  the  Christ,  who  was  on 
trial,  who  was  condemned,  who  was  eternally 
disgraced  that  day.  St.  Paul  sees  with  the  eye 
of  faith,  over  against  the  three  crosses  of  Cal- 
vary, another  cross,  a  towering  shameful  cross 


Crucifying  the  World.  7  3 

on  which  a  wicked  world,  dishonoured,  disgraced, 
and  doomed,  has  hung  itself.  He  can  never  for- 
get that  his  Lord  "was  in  the  world,  and  the 
world  was  made  by  Him,  and  the  world  knew 
Him  not."  ' 

It  hated  Him,  rejected  Him,  did  its  best  to 
destroy  Him  utterly.  It  strove  to  judge  Him, 
but  only  judged  itself.  It  convicted  itself  of 
the  most  awful  wrongs  which  were  ever  done  in 
heaven  or  earth.  Since  that  day  St.  Paul  could 
only  think  of  the  world  as  a  self-condemned 
criminal  gibbeted  before  the  eyes  of  angels  and 
men,  a  culprit  whose  base  and  bloody  sin  has 
found  him  out  and  brought  its  due  reward,  a 
malefactor  whose  evil  purposes  have  been 
exposed  and  who  is  no  longer  to  be  feared. 
Henceforth,  he  regarded  it  and  feared  it  no 
more  than  he  would  a  condemned  criminal 
writhing  on  a  cross.  The  world  was  crucified 
to  him. 

But  more.  He  was  "  crucified  to  the  world." 
He  was  on  the  Cross  with  Christ.  He  viewed 
the  world  from  the  standpoint  of  the  Cross  of 
Christ.  It  had  lost  its  charms,  forfeited  its 
claims.  Its  glamour  was  gone;  he  had  nothing 
more  to  hope  or  to  fear  from  it ;  he  had  done  with 
the  world.  What  did  he  care  for  its  pleasures, 
its  prizes,  its  good   opinion,  its   sneers,  or  its 

I  St.  John  i.  lo. 


74  Third  Week — Friday. 

scorn?  What  could  it  offer  to  him  who  gloried 
in  the  Cross  of  Christ  and  believed  it  to  be  the 
throne  of  glory  everlasting?  The  world  was 
forever  crucified  to  him,  and  he  to  the  world. 

Strong  and  shocking  as  St.  Paul's  language 
may  seem  to  us,  it  is  perfectly  true.  The 
world  did  crucify  Christ,  and  it  would  do  so 
again,  if  He  came  amongst  us  in  the  flesh  to-day. 

It  is  the  same  world,  only  a  little  better  for 
nineteen  centuries  of  Christianity.  The  only 
point  from  which  the  Christian  can  see  the  world 
in  its  true  light  is  the  Cross  of  Calvary.  If  he  is 
a  true  Christian,  he  must  see  it  from  that  point 
of  view.  He  is  crucified  with  Christ.  He  cannot 
forget  the  attitude  of  the  world  towards  the 
Cross,  cannot  forget  that  the  world  made  the 
Cross.  He  looks  down  from  his  Cross  of  glory 
where  he  hangs  with  Christ  and  sees  the  world 
on  its  cross,  its  cross  of  shame,  and  would  not 
change  places  for  all  that  the  world  has  to  give. 
He  glories  in  his  Cross. 

Have  we  learned  so  to  do?  Are  we  looking 
at  the  world  this  Lent  from  the  vantage-ground 
of  the  Cross?  We  must  learn  to  do  so,  if  we  are 
to  be  joint-heirs  with  Christ  in  the  triumphs  He 
has  won.  We  must  identify  ourselves  with 
Him  and  look  at  the  world  from  His  point  of 
view:  the  highest,  the  truest,  the  best  stand- 
point from   which   to  estimate  its  real  worth. 


i 


Crucifying  the  World.  75 

Let  us  to-day  earnestly  beseech  God  to  give  us 
the  spirit  of  St.  Paul,  to  open  our  eyes,  so  that 
we  may  see  how  true  it  is  that  in  the  eternal 
sacrifice  of  the  Cross  the  world  is  crucified  unto 
us,  and  we  unto  the  world. 


THIRD  WEEK   IN   LENT. 


SATURDAY. 

THE    PROFIT    AND    LOSS    OF  WORLDLINESS. 


"  What  is  a  man  profited,  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole  world,  and 
lose  his  own  soul  ?  or  what  shall  a  man  give  in  exchange  for 
his  soul  ?  " — St.  Matt.  xvi.  26. 

Here  is  a  plain  practical  question  which 
ought  to  be  driven  home  to  every  human  heart. 
Our  Blessed  Lord  did  not  deal  in  fine-spun  theo- 
ries, or  dreamy  sentiments.  His  words  were 
the  plainest,  the  directest,  the  profoundest  which 
have  ever  sounded  in  human  ears.  Beside 
them  all  human  speech  is  hollow,  vain,  and 
powerless.  Study  the  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
and  you  will  be  more  and  more  amazed  at  their 
marvelous  insight,  depth,  and  simplicity.  In 
those  which  we  have  before  us  to-day  He  puts 
a  searching  question  to  the  practical  people 
of  all  ages,  and  especially  to  those  of  these 
money-getting  days.     It  is  a  problem  in  profit 


\ 


The  Profit  and  Loss  of  Worldliness.        'JJ 

and  loss  which  ought  to  appeal  powerfully  to 
the  men  of  our  time.  With  matchless  energy, 
and  tremendous  industry,  they  are  developing 
the  material  resources  of  this  world,  accumu- 
lating wealth,  enlarging  the  boundaries  of 
human  knowledge,  and  pushing  progress  into 
undreamed-of  developments.  They  take  a  busi- 
ness-like view  of  everything.  They  ask,  "  What 
does  it  cost?  What  is  it  worth?  Is  there  any 
profit  in  it? "  By  this  standard  everything  is 
weighed.  Life  is  too  short  and  too  strenuous 
to  be  wasted  upon  things  which  have  no  profit 
in  them.  Even  the  amusements  and  pleasures 
of  men  are  made  to  contribute  to  the  main 
chance  or  sacrificed  in  its  pursuit.  Everything 
that  claims  a  share  in  our  modern  life  is  chal- 
lenged by  the  question,  what  is  it  worth?  Men 
of  the  world  ask  this  question  ceaselessly. 
They  bring  literature,  art,  invention,  conduct, 
religion, — everything  to  this  test. 

In  all  this  they  are  right,  that  is,  if  their 
standards  of  judgment  are  right.  God  does  the 
same.  He  tolerates  nothing  useless.  There  is 
not  a  superfluous  atom  in  His  whole  universe.  He 
comes  to  the  busy  men  of  to-day  and  says,  "  You 
are  quite  right.  Like  you,  I  ask  to  know  what 
everything  is  worth?  It  is  the  part  of  prudence, 
not  only  to  ask,  but  to  knoiv,  what  things  are 
worth.     I  come  to  you  and  I  put  this  question 


78  Tliird  Week — Saturday. 

to  you.  Answer  me — the  things  of  this  world 
for  which  you  are  toiling,  suffering,  dying,  what 
are  they  worth?  You  have  two  great  enter- 
prises before  you:  to  gain  the  things  of  this 
world,  and  to  win  the  things  of  the  world  to 
come.  Which  are  worth  the  most  to  you?  Are 
this  world's  goods  the  chief  things;  what  is  their 
value  compared  with  the  life  of  the  soul;  if  you 
must  choose  between  the  two,  v/hich  is  worth 
the  most;  is  it  wise,  is  it  reasonable,  is  it  right 
for  you  to  seek  the  one  and  sacrifice  the  other? 
The  things  of  this  world  are  many  of  them  good, 
attractive,  enjoyable;  but  are  they  the  supreme 
things  of  life?  Is  there  anything  higher  and 
more  precious  than  they?"  Here  is  the  great 
problem  of  life,  the  vast  responsibility  of  choice 
for  every  one.  Which  shall  it  be — "  the  lust 
of  the  flesh,  and  the  lust  of  the  eyes,  and  the 
pride  of  life,"  or  the  higher  "life  that  is  hid  with 
Christ  in  God?  "  Shall  we  gain  the  good  things 
of  this  world,  or  the  good  things  of  God?  Here 
is  our  alternative — an  eternal  life  of  worldliness, 
begun  here  and  continued  in  the  world  to  come ; 
or  an  eternal  life  of  Godliness,  of  union  and  com- 
munion with  God,  commenced  here  and  consum- 
mated in  the  other  world.  There  are  a  higher 
and  a  lower  life.  Which  ought  you  as  a  reason- 
able being  to  choose?  Suppose  you  could  gain 
the  whole  world,  realize  all  its  joys,  and  grasp 


The  Profit  and  Loss  of  Worldliness.       79 

its  prizes  every  one :  how  much  are  they  worth, 
how  long  can  you  keep  them,  will  they  satisfy 
you,  will  you  be  content  with  them?  Suppose, 
on  the  other  hand,  you  are  called  upon  to  give 
up  all  that  the  world  has  given  you,  can  you 
do  it,  what  would  be  the  effect,  will  the  loss  be 
irreparable,  will  all  happiness  then  be  at  an 
end  for  you? 

Here  is  where  the  world  makes  one  of  its 
worst  mistakes.  When  a  man,  by  some  error 
or  misfortune  in  business,  loses  all  his  worldly 
goods,  he  cries  out  that  he  is  "  ruined,"  and  the 
world  with  pity  echoes  the  cry.  But  is  it  so? 
Is  the  light  all  gone  out  of  his  life?  It  is  true 
that  he  will  have  to  live  in  a  more  humble 
style,  his  wife  may  be  forced  to  retire  from 
society,  his  children  may  be  denied  some  lux- 
uries. His  pride  is  humbled,  his  extrava- 
gance and  luxurious  living  are  at  an  end.  But 
he  himself  may  be  saved.  That  deep  experience 
may  develop  all  his  manlier  qualities,  prove 
how  true  and  loving  his  wife  is,  and  rescue  his 
children  from  a  life  of  pampered  self-indulgence. 
The  man  who  is  really  ruined  may  be  the  one 
who  is  left  in  possession  of  all  his  wealth,  and 
whom  the  world  calls  prosperous,  while  the  secret 
canker  of  pride  and  avarice  is  eating  out  his  heart. 

But  cannot  we  have  both  the  higher  life  of 
the   soul   and  the   good  things  of   this  world? 


8o  Third  Week — Saturday, 

Yes,  perhaps  so.  God  has  promised  that,  if  we 
seek  first  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  and  his  right- 
eousness, all  other  things  needful  in  this  world 
shall  be  given  us.  But  that  is  not  the  question. 
The  real  question  is  this:  Can  a  wise,  practical, 
sensible  person  permit  himself  to  become  so 
absorbed  in  pursuing  the  prizes  of  this  world 
as  to  utterly  neglect  and  ignore  the  higher  life 
of  his  soul?  Is  there  anything  which,  in  a  true 
view  of  human  destiny,  can  compare  with  the 
priceless  worth  of  an  immortal  soul? 

Let  us  take  this  question  home  with  us  to-day, 
ponder  it  well  in  our  hearts,  and  answer  it  truth- 
fully to  ourselves  and  to  God. 


FOURTH  WEEK  IN  LENT. 


MONDAY. 

THE    SCHOOL    OF    LIFE. 


"It  is  good  for  me  that  I  have  been  in  trouble  that  I  may 
learn  thy  statutes," — Psabn  i.xix.  7/. 

When  we  look  out  over  the  face  of  human 
life  we  find  it  full  of  adversity.  We  are  con- 
fronted by  the  dark  problem  of  pain.  We  find 
this  life  full  of  ups  and  downs,  of  reverses  and 
calamities.  We  are  almost  ready  to  cry  out 
with  holy  Job,  "Man  is  born  unto  trouble,  as 
the  sparks  fly  upward."  '  We  ponder  all  this  in 
our  hearts,  and  are  driven  to  ask.  How  can 
our  good  God  permit  it?  "  He  is  gracious  and 
merciful,  slow  to  anger,  and  of  great  kindness, 
and  repenteth  Him  of  the  evil."  ^  And  yet  the 
world  which  He  has  made  is  full  of  trouble,  and 
man  whom  He  has  created  is  a  constant  victim 
of  adversity.  How  can  we  reconcile  the  suffer- 
ings of  mankind  with  the  doctrine  of  God's 
good  Providence  ? 

I  Job  V,  7.  2  Joel  ii.  13. 


82 


Fourth  Week — Monday. 


1.  First  we  must  remind  ourselves  that  the 
troubles  which  so  grievously  afflict  humankind 
do  not  originate  from  God.  He  did  not  send 
them  into  the  world ;  they  are  not  a  part  of  his 
creative  plans.  They  were  brought  into  the 
world  by  man,  and  are  the  result  of  his  fall  from 
the  state  of  grace  in  which  God  created  him. 
They  are  the  inevitable  consequence  of  his  sin. 
They  result  directly  from  the  errors  of  his  free 
will,  and  are  the  necessary  incidents  of  his  wan- 
dering from  God. 

2.  But  there  is  a  counter  truth  which  we 
must  not  fail  to  grasp.  God  turns  all  the 
adversities  with  which  man  afflicts  himself  to 
good  account.  He  converts  them  to  his  own 
uses.  Even  "the  fierceness  of  man  shall  turn 
to  His  praise."  '  God  uses  all  human  adversity 
to  wean  us  from  the  world,  draw  us  to  Himself, 
and  prepare  us  for  a  higher  life. 

A  clever  writer  has  recently  published  a  book 
entitled  the  "  School  of  Life,"  in  which  he 
shows  at  considerable  length  how  the  discipline 
of  adversity  is  made  use  of  by  God  to  prepare 
us  for  the  world  to  come.  It  is  a  perfectly  true 
view  of  life.  This  world  is  an  educational  in- 
stitution, a  training-school  into  which  our  wise 
and  loving  Father  puts  us  all  for  a  time  to  learn 
the  great  lessons  of  life.     Our  Great  Teacher 


to' 

1  Psalm  Ixxvi.  lo. 


The  School  of  Life.  '^2i 

is  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  teaches,  not  as 
the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  of  human  philosophy, 
but  "with  authority."  His  assistant  teachers 
are  the  .manifold  vicissitudes  of  daily  life. 
Every  crisis  of  our  experience  in  this  world, 
every  trial,  every  trouble,  every  calamity  is 
made  use  of  by  God  in  His  all-wise  providence 
to  help  on  the  training  of  our  souls. 

Now  in  the  School  of  Life  what  is  the  chief 
lesson  which  we  have  to  learn  ?  Is  it  not  the 
hard  old  lesson  of  detachment  from  this  world 
and  union  and  communion  with  God  ? 

Mankind  is  a  prodigal  race  which  has  for- 
saken God,  gone  its  own  way,  forgotten  the 
pure  pleasures  of  its  Father's  House,  and  is 
wasting  its  substance  with  riotous  living.  Some- 
times in  quiet  hours  there  comes  a  faint  gleam 
of  heavenly  light  across  its  chosen  path  to 
remind  it  of  its  Father  and  its  Home,  but  for 
most  part  it  goes  its  way  forgetful  of  its  rich 
inheritance  and  careless  of  any  higher  life.  It 
is  so  surfeited  in  the  gross  enjoyment  of  carnal 
lusts  that  it  has  lost  all  taste  for  spiritual  things 
and  become  "  earthly,  sensual,  devilish." 

How  shall  this  fallen  race  be  won  back  to 
God  ?  How  shall  it  be  weaned  from  worldly 
lusts,  how  shall  it  be  taught  the  worthlessness 
of  all  that  this  world  can  give  without  God, 
how  shall  it   be   made   to  feel   the   difference 


84  Fourth  Week — Monday. 

between  the  license  of  self-will  and  the  "per- 
fect freedom  ' '  of  the  life  of  service  it  has  left 
behind  ?  There  is  but  one  way.  It  must  have 
the  discipline  of  adversity.  It  must  learn  by 
bitter  experience  that  man  cannot  find  hap- 
piness apart  from  God,  that  worldliness  cannot 
satisfy  the  soul,  that  there  is  a  great  famine  in 
the  land  which  he  has  chosen  for  his  home,  a 
famine  of  all  which  can  feed  his  real  life.  He 
must  find  the  pleasures  of  life  failing  him  one 
by  one,  until  at  last  he  is  reduced  to  the  swinish 
husks  which  cannot  dull  the  hunger  of  his  soul. 
Then  it  may  be  that  erring  man  will  waken  to 
some  sense  of  his  waywardness  and  loss,  and 
say  to  himself,  *'  I  will  arise  and  go  to  my 
Father,  and  will  say  unto  Him,  Father,  I  have 
sinned  against  heaven  and  before  thee,  and  am 
no  more  worthy  to  be  called  thy  son;  make  me 
as  one  of  thy  hired  servants"  and  take  me 
home.' 

Such  is  the  great  lesson  which  most  of  us 
have  to  learn  in  the  School  of  Life,  the  lesson 
of  detachment  from  the  world  and  loving  union 
with  our  good  God.  Many  of  us  are  but  slow 
of  heart  to  learn  it,  and  our  loving  Father  has 
to  watch  and  wait  while  we  bring  a  multitude 
of  sorrows  on  ourselves  before  we  are  ready 
to  turn  to  Him  and  find  rest  for  our  souls.    The 

I  St.  Luke  XV.  18,  19. 


II 


The  School  of  Life.  85 

uncertainties  and  disappointments  of  life  are 
God's  monitors  to  point  us  to  Heaven,  which  is 
our  Home.  All  the  ills  that  flesh  is  heir  to  are 
permitted  by  Him  to  show  us  our  helplessness 
and  drive  us  to  Him  for  help.  Every  calamity 
which  sends  a  shudder  through  the  hearts  of 
men  ought  to  show  us  how  frail  is  the  hand  of 
man  and  fix  our  thoughts  upon  God.  Our 
living  and  loving  Lord  has  his  gentler  lessons 
for  us  all,  but  our  wayward  hearts  often  force 
Him  to  inflict  on  us  the  stern  discipline  of  adver- 
sity and  teach  us  the  hard  lessons  of  expe- 
rience before  he  can  draw  His  erring  children 
home. 

Let  us  think  upon  these  things  this  week,  and 
let  us  resolve  to-day  that  we  will  try  to  master 
the  great  lessons  which  we  are  set  to  learn  in 
the  school  of  adversity. 


FOURTH  WEEK  IN  LENT. 


TUESDAY. 
BY    POVERTY    OF    SPIRIT. 


"Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit,  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven. — Si.  Matt.  v.  j. 

We  said  yesterday  that  Jesus  is  the  Great 
Teacher  in  the  School  of  Life.  Near  the  begin- 
ning of  His  earthly  ministry  He  went  up  into  a 
mountain,  apart  from  the  distractions  of  human 
philosophy,  and  taught  the  world  what  it  most 
needs  to  know.  His  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is 
the  concentrated  essence  of  all  wisdom,  human 
and  divine.  Let  us  try  this  week  to  learn  some 
of  the  great  Lessons  of  Life  which  it  contains. 

To-day  let  us  consider  the  first  beatitude, 
'*  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit." 

Who  are  they? 

Of  all  the  results  of  human  experience  none 
is  more  repulsive  to  the  natural  man,  and  yet 
none  is  more  forcibly  brought  home  to  him  than 
the  knowledge   of  the   limitations  of  the  life 


By  Poverty  of  Spirit.  87 

which  he  lives  in  this  world.     Man  plans  great 
things,    and  cannot   bring  them  to  pass.      He 
toils  incessantly,  and  finds  that  he  has  laboured 
but  in   vain.      He   rises    early,  and   goes   late 
to    rest,    and   eats  the    bread   of    carefulness, 
and  is  nothing  profited  in  the  end.     He  brings 
his  highest  powers  of  mind  and  body  to  bear 
in  the  battle  of  life  and  is  defeated   after  all. 
He  exhausts  the  cleverest   devices   of  worldly 
foresight    and    policy,    and   all    to    no    effect. 
His   most  far-reaching   and   best-laid   schemes 
are   brought  to  nought.     He   is  baffled,    beat- 
en,   thwarted,  humiliated,    disgraced,    brought 
down  to  the  ground,  again  and  again.     What 
does  it  all  mean?     What  ought  he  to  learn  from 
it?     If  he  will  but  see  it,  the  lesson  is  very  plain. 
He  ought  to  learn  his  own  littleness;  he  should 
see  how  utterly  insignificant,  and  powerless,  and 
worthless  he  is .     It  may  take  a  lifetime  to  teach 
him  this  wholesome  truth.     His  proud  spirit  of 
self-love  and  self-confidence  is  a  slow  learner  in 
the  school  of  experience.     But  the  lessons  given 
him  there  are  not  wanting  in  number  and  plain- 
ness, and  are  nicely  adapted  to  his  needs.     God 
lets  us  fall  and  fail  hopelessly  until  we  learn  not 
to  trust   ourselves,  imtil   at  last  we  learn   our 
utter  helplessness.    The  first  and  best  knowledge 
for  every  human  soul,  the  beginning  of  wisdom, 
is  the  perception  of  its  own  pitiful  weakness  and 


88  Fourth  Week — Tuesday, 

insignificance  in  the  vast  Universe  of  God.  No 
soul  is  fit  to  begin  life  in  earnest,  to  enter  into 
its  great  inheritance,  until  it  is  conscious  of  its 
absolute  poverty,  and  has  fallen  down  in  spir- 
itual nakedness  at  the  feet  of  the  Most  High 
God.  "Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  except  ye  be 
converted,  and  become  as  little  children,  ye 
shall  not  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  ' 
When  the  soul  has  learned  its  own  destitution 
and  frailty  and  faultiness  and  sin,  has  emptied 
out  all  the  pride  and  self-confidence  with  which 
it  had  been  filled,  and  has  turned  humbly  from 
itself  to  God,  then  it  is  ready  to  enter  into  His 
spiritual  kingdom  and  be  at  rest  in  Him.  This 
is  the  poverty  of  spirit  taught  by  our  Lord  and 
His  assistant  teachers,  the  failures  and  vicissi- 
tudes of  human  experience.  Blessed  is  he 
who  can  say,  "  Lord,  I  am  not  highminded,  I 
have  no  proud  looks.  I  do  not  exercise  myself 
in  great  matters  which  are  too  high  for  me. 
But  I  refrain  my  soul  and  keep  it  low,  like  as  a 
child  that  is  weaned  from  his  mother,  yea,  my 
soul  is  even  as  a  weaned  child."   ^ 

''Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit,  for  theirs  is 
the  kingdom  of  heaven."  What  does  this  prom- 
ise mean?  It  means  that  they  are  ready  for, 
and  entitled  to,  an  entrance  into  the  great  spir- 
itual Kingdom  of  God,  the  universal  Church  of 

I  St.  Matt,  xviii.  3.  2  Psalm  cxxxi.  1-3. 


By  Poverty  of  Spirit.  89 

Christ.  They  are  able  to  receive  and  enjoy  all 
which  the  Church  has  to  give  them.  Her  Gos- 
pel, her  sacraments,  her  ministries  of  grace, 
her  superhuman  and  unworldly  life,  her  sweet 
and  strong  relationships  are  theirs.  By  reason 
of  their  conversion  into  the  spirit  of  Christ  and 
new  birth  into  God's  great  family,  they  are 
become  ''heirs  of  God,  and  joint  heirs  with 
Christ."  ' 

They  need  not  wait  till  some  distant  time  to 
enter  into  their  inheritance ;  it  is  theirs  here  and 
now.  For  them  the  heavenly  life  is  already 
begun.  They  have  already  taken  hold  upon  that 
eternal  life  of  union  with  God,  which,  beginning 
here  and  now,  will  go  on  widening  and  deepen- 
ing and  brightening  eternally. 

Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit  who  have  been 
always  so,  who  have  never  lost  the  simplicity 
and  trust  and  humility  of  a  little  child,  who 
have  always  walked  close  with  God,  and  have  no 
need  to  turn  to  him  in  weeping,  fasting,  and 
praying  amidst  the  darkening  shadows  of  a 
weary  and  wasted  life. 

Blessed  also  are  the  poor  in  spirit,  who,  in 
the  stern  school  of  adversity,  have  learned  to 
know  the  littleness  of  man,  the  greatness  of 
God,  and  are  content  to  lie  like  beggars  by  the 
Beautiful  Gate  of  the  temple  of  God. 

1  Romans  viii.  17. 


90  Fourth  Week — Tuesday. 

Lord,  help  us  that  "  the  sense  of  our  weakness 
may  add  strength  to  our  faith,  and  seriousness 
to  our  repentance ' ' ;  make  us  to  feel  our  spir- 
itual poverty  and  nakedness;  and  turn  us,  even 
if  need  be,  through  the  valley  of  humiliation, 
into  the  paths  of  righteousness,  for  thy  Name's 
sake. 


FOURTH  WEEK    IN   LENT, 
^^e  Rasters  Ot?er  (^^tjereifg. 


WEDNESDAY. 

BY    MEEKNESS. 


"  Blessed  are  the  meek,  for  they  shall  inherit  the  earth." — 
Si.  Matt.  V.  5. 

Meekness  is  a  virtue  little  appreciated  nowa- 
days and  much  misunderstood.  The  world 
admires  those  who  are  prompt  in  their  own 
defense.  It  is  inclined  to  regard  meekness  as  a 
weak,  womanish  sort  of  quality,  which  is  too 
timid,  too  pliant,  too  passive  to  maintain  its 
own  rights,  and  so  lets  them  go  by  default. 
But  meekness  and  weakness  are  two  very  dif- 
ferent things.  Meekness  is  the  perfection  of 
strength.  The  meekest  man  is  not  the  weakest 
but  the  strongest  man.  Let  us  take  two  exam- 
ples. 

I.  Who  is  the  meekest  character  in  all 
human  history  ?  Jesus  Christ.  He  said  of 
Himself,  "I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart."' 
I  St.  Matt.  xi.  29. 


92  Fourth  Week — Wednesday. 

Was  the  character  of  Christ  a  weak  character  ? 
Was  it  not  the  perfection  of  manly  strength  ? 
He  held  proud  priests  and  Pharisees  at  bay  and 
denounced  them  to  their  face.  The  poor  flocked 
to  him  for  shelter  as  to  "  the  shadow  of  a  great 
rock  in  a  weary  land."  He  drove  out  with 
righteous  and  resistless  fury  those  whom  He 
found  profaning  His  Father's  House.  He  en- 
diired  with  splendid  fortitude  the  scourge,  the 
crown  of  thorns,  the  Cross.  He  made  the 
Roman  soldiers  quail  before  Him  in  Geth- 
semane,  and  filled  Caiaphas  and  Pilate  with 
trembling  on  their  judgment  thrones.  He  was 
the  pattern  of  meekness,  but  he  was  at  the 
same  time  the  Lion  of  the  Tribe  of  Judah. 

2.  Who  was  the  meekest  of  men  ?  Moses, 
Was  his  a  weak  character  ?  Think  what  he 
did.  For  the  love  of  God  he  mastered  all  the 
temptations  of  Egypt  and  ''chose  rather  to 
suffer  affliction  with  the  people  of  God  than  to 
enjoy  the  pleasures  of  sin  for  a  season,  esteem- 
ing the  reproach  of  Christ  greater  riches  than 
the  treasures  of  Egypt." '  He  left  wealth, 
honour,  and  the  prospect  of  the  most  splendid 
of  kingly  thrones  behind  him  and  led  a  horde  of 
fugitive  slaves  into  a  wild  wilderness  at  the 
command  of  God.  Again  and  again  he  made 
the  mightiest  monarch  of  the  earth  to  tremble 
I  Hebrews  xi.  25. 


By  Meekness,  93 

on  his  throne  and  humbled  him  to  the  dust. 
He  displayed  the  most  splendid  generalship 
which  the  world  has  ever  seen.  Nothing  could 
daunt  him.  He  knew  no  fear  and  acknowl- 
edged no  defeat.  And  yet  he  was  the  meekest 
of  men. 

Meekness,  then,  is  not  weakness  but  strength, 
solid  and  sublime  strength  of  character.  It  is 
based  upon  absolute  confidence.  The  meek 
man  is  so  sure  of  himself,  so  sure  of  God,  that 
he  can  endure  anything.  He  knows  in  whom 
he  has  put  his  trust  and  he  will  not  be  afraid, 
"though  the  earth  be  moved,  and  though  the 
hills  be  carried  into  the  midst  of  the  sea,  though 
the  waters  thereof  rage  and  swell,  and  though 
the  mountains  shake  at  the  tempest  of  the 
same."'  He  "endures  as  seeing  him  who  is 
invisible."^  His  heart  is  stayed  upon  God  and 
he  will  not  fear  what  man  can  do  unto  him. 
He  knows  that  God  is  for  him.  Who  can  be 
against  him  ?  He  is  at  one  with  God  and  feels 
underneath  him  the  everlasting  arms.  He  sees 
behind  the  pillar  of  cloud  and  of  fire  the  High 
and  Holy  One  who  inhabiteth  eternity.  "The 
waves  of  the  sea  are  mighty  and  rage  horribly, 
but  yet  the  Lord  who  dwelleth  on  high  is 
mightier."  3  Therefore  he  is  serene  and  undis- 

I  Psalm  xlvi.  2,  3.  2  Hebrews  xi.  27. 

3  Psalm  xciii.  5. 


94  Fourth  Week — Wednesday. 

mayed  amidst  all  the  world's  storms.  There- 
fore he  "  suffereth  long  and  is  kind,  envieth 
not,  vaunteth  not  himself,  is  not  puffed  up, 
doth  not  behave  himself  unseemly,  seeketh  not 
his  own,  is  not  easily  provoked,  beareth  all 
things,  believeth  all  things,  hopeth  all  things, 
endureth  all  things."'  There  is  no  passion  in 
him,  in  quietness  and  confidence  is  found  his 
strength.  His  ''soul  truly  waiteth  still  upon 
God."  = 

"  Blessed  are  the  meek,  for  they  shall  inherit 
the  earth."  What  does  this  promise  mean  ?  Does 
it  say  that  all  which  this  world  has  to  give  shall 
ultimately  be  given  them?  No.  This,  like  most 
of  our  Lord's  promises,  is  spiritual.  They  shall 
inherit  that  **  new  heaven  and  new  earth  wherein 
dwelleth  righteousness."  3  But  even  in  this 
world  they  shall  begin  to  enjoy  their  reward. 
Nothing  mars  the  happiness  of  this  world  so 
much  as  those  exacting  ambitions  and  turbu- 
lent passions  whose  sway  in  the  heart  is  most 
opposed  to  meekness.  They  who  have  cast 
off  the  dominion  of  avarice  and  hatred,  and  set 
themselves  free  from  care  and  anxiety,  these 
grow  daily  in  calmness  and  serenity  and  spiritual 
strength,  are  more  and  more  detached  from  this 
world,  more   and  more  closely  joined  to   God. 

1 1.  Cor.   xiii.  4-7.  2  Psalm  Ixii.  i. 

3  II.  St.  Teter  iii.  13. 


By  Meekness.  95 

Having  surrendered  themselves  wholly  to  Him, 
they  are  not  too  much  disturbed  when  adversi- 
ties come  upon  them.  They  simply  say,  "It 
is  the  Lord,  let  Him  do  what  seemeth  Him 
good."'  They  receive  all  trouble  and  adver- 
sity as  something  permitted  in  God's  good 
providence,  endurable  by  His  help,  and  con- 
vertible into  new  spiritual  strength  of  character. 
They  have  gained  the  mastery  over  adversity 
and  have  already  in  anticipation  come  off  more 
than  conquerors  in  the  battle  of  life. 

Let  us  ask  of  God  to-day,  that  He  will 
strengthen  our  faith  in  Him,  and  give  us  a 
possession  that  "is  not  corruptible,  even  the 
ornament  of  a  meek  and  quiet  spirit,  which  is 
in  the  sight  of  God  of  great  price."  - 

1 1.  Sam.  iii.  i8.  =  I.  St.  Peter  iii.  4. 


FOURTH  WEEK  IN  LENT. 


THURSDAY. 
BY    MOURNING. 


"Blessed  are  they  that  mourn,  for  they  shall  be  comforted." — 
Sf.  Matt.  V.  4. 

The  world  does  not  think  so.  It  regards  the 
sorrows  and  losses  of  human  life  as  a  grievous 
burden,  often  almost  too  heavy  to  be  borne.  It 
never  says,  "It  is  good  for  me  that  I  have  been 
in  trouble."  It  considers  every  bereavement  as  a 
calamity,  and  does  not  discern  the  uses  of  adver- 
sity. It  blames  God  for  permitting  the  exist- 
ence of  sorrow  in  His  world. 

But  the  world's  view  is  a  shallow  and  short- 
sighted one.  It  forgets  that  sorrow  was  not  in 
the  world  as  God  made  it,  but  was  brought  in 
by  the  sin  of  man.  Nor  can  it  see  how  afflictions 
are  made  use  of  by  God  to  wean  us  from  world- 
liness.  And  yet  this  is  one  of  the  fundamental 
facts  of  human  experience.     He  who  has  lost 


By  Mourning.  97 

nothing  which  this  world  has  given  him,  how 
shall  he  learn  to  set  his  "  affections  on  things 
above,  not  on  things  on  the  earth?"  He  who 
has  with  him  in  this  world  all  whom  he  holds 
most  dear,  how  shall  he  grasp  the  great  realities 
of  the  world  unseen  and  realize  his  relationship 
to  the  souls  in  Paradise?  It  is  when,  ''amidst 
the  changes  and  chances  of  this  mortal  life,"  we 
lose  what  we  value  most,  that  God  reaches  out 
and  draws  us  most  mightily  to  Himself.  It  is 
when  He  removes  into  the  invisible  world  the 
lives  which  we  have  most  loved,  that  we  begin 
to  learn  of  that  world,  to  comprehend  something 
of  its  life,  and  to  prepare  to  join  them  in  the 
unseen.  Mourning  is  the  means  which  God  uses 
to  draw  many  to  himself  who  had  been  fast 
bound  by  the  enjoyments  and  affections  of  this 
world.  It  is  the  bitter  but  wholesome  medi- 
cine by  which  the  sickness  of  many  a  soul  is 
cured. 

Mourning  has  marvelous  power  to  purify 
and  ennoble  and  uplift  the  heart  of  man.  It 
dispels  at  once  many  of  the  illusions  of  life,  and 
shows  him  what  his  soul  craves  for  most.  It 
reduces  the  ordinary  events  and  interests  of  life 
to  their  true  proportions,  and  shows  him  how 
little  after  all  this  world  has  to  give.  It  brings 
out  all  that  is  best  in  him,  wakens  all  his  finer 
sensibilities,  and  stirs  his  nobler  self  within  him. 


98  Four  til  Week — Thursday. 

It  exalts  and  dignifies  his  strongest  affections 
and  relationships,  lifts  them  up  out  of  the 
narrow  horizon  of  this  present  world,  and  sets 
them  aloft  in  heavenly  places  where  Christ  sit- 
teth  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  Henceforth,  they 
are  not  things  of  time,  but  of  eternity.  They 
are  no  longer  "  of  the  earth  earthy  "  but,  refined 
and  spiritualized,  form  a  sweet  and  sacred  side 
of  our  life  which  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God. 

There  are  some  souls  who  never  mourn. 
They  are  too  hard,  too  busy,  too  satisfied.  But 
they  are  not  the  purest,  noblest,  loveliest  souls; 
their  life  is  not  the  highest  life.  They  are 
living  upon  the  lowest  levels  of  human  experi- 
ence. It  is  they  who  have  climbed  painfully  up 
to  the  hills  from  whence  cometh  their  help,  and 
left  behind  them  the  lowlands  of  common  life, 
who  breathe  the  pure  air  of  heaven,  and  are  near- 
est to  God.  For  God  has  mourned,  and  it  is 
Godlike  to  mourn. 

Reflect,  O  my  soul.  Has  God  lost  anything? 
Has  He  been  afflicted?  Does  He  indeed  mourn? 
Yes,  we  must  say  it  reverently,  God  has  had  His 
losses  too.  Nothing  of  His  material  universe 
can  be  lost,  not  one  atom  of  it  can  go  to  waste. 
But  something  more  precious,  namely,  souls  can 
be  lost.  Satan  and  his  angels  are  lost.  Man 
whom  God  has  made  in  His  Own  Image  is 
a  fallen  creature,  redeemed  as  a  race,  it  is  true, 


By  Mourning.  99 

but  many  of  them  are  squandering  their  lives, 
losing  their  souls.  God  looks  down  upon  a  rebel- 
lious, suffering,  sinning  race,  and  mourns  their 
fall.  What  was  it  caused  the  agony  in  the 
garden  of  Gethsemane?  It  was  the  awful,  shock- 
ing, crushing  consciousness  of  human  sin,  which 
bowed  the  Incarnate  God  down  to  the  ground 
and  broke  His  heart.  He  was  a  ''man  of 
sorrows,  and  acquainted  w4th  grief."  And  why? 
Was  it  because  He  had  no  place  to  lay  His  head? 
because  He  suffered  bodily  pain?  because  He  was 
an  outcast  from  human  society?  No,  not  so 
much  for  these  as  because  He  felt  so  keenly,  so 
bitterly,  so  heavily,  the  burden  of  the  world's 
sins.  It  was  the  awful  sense  of  sin  which  made 
Him  the  Lamb  of  God. 

Every  Christ-like  man  will  go  mourning  all  his 
days  for  sin.  First  and  chiefly  for  his  own  sin, 
so  dark,  so  deceitful,  so  hateful  to  himself,  so 
unlovely  in  the  sight  of  God.  And  then  for  the 
sins  of  mankind,  so  black,  so  vast,  so  desperate, 
so  foul,  so  defiling  to  this  fair  world  which  God 
has  made.  Sin  in  the  heart  of  man,  that  temple 
made  without  hands  to  be  God's  dwelling  place  ; 
sin  in  the  mind  of  man,  which  was  made  to  be 
like  the  mind  of  Christ;  sin  in  the  body  of  man, 
which  God  has  made  to  bear  about  His  Image 
in  this  world ;  sin  on  this  earth  which  God  has 
made  so  bright  and  beautiful;    sin  among  all 


lOO  Four  til  Week — Thursday. 

nations  and  peoples  which  dwell  on  the  face  of  the 
earth;  sin  in  the  Church,  which  is  the  Bride  of 
Christ  and  where  God's  honor  dwells ;  must  we 
not  mourn  for  these?  ''Blessed  are  they  that 
mourn  "  over  the  sin  and  shame  and  crime  of  a 
lost  world,  for  in  their  mourning  they  are  at  one 
with  God. 

All  who  truly  mourn  shall  be  comforted,  not 
simply  soothed  and  consoled,  but  "comforted." 
Their  mourning  shall  strengthen  them.  It  was 
so  with  the  Chief  Mourners  of  the  world,  they 
who  mourned  a  crucified  Lord.  When  the  Holy 
Ghost,  the  Comforter,  was  come,  they  were  in- 
stantly converted  from  a  timid  band  of  despised 
and  dejected  Galilean  peasants  into  a  glorious 
company  of  Apostles,  a  noble  army  of  Martyrs, 
bold  as  lions  to  face  a  frowning  world.  They 
were  comforted,  strengthened  in  their  mourning- 

So  will  it  be  with  us,  if  we  sorrow  after  a 
Godly  sort.  Our  sorrow  will  be  turned  into 
joy,  for  we  will  have  mourned  with  Christ  and 
may  rejoice  with  Him,  when  He  comes  again, 
in  the  Great  Easter  Day, 

"  To  terminate  the  evil, 
To  diadem  tlie  right." 

Then  shall  God  *'  wipe  away  all  tears  from  our 
eyes  and  there  shall  be  no  more  death,  neither  sor- 
row, nor  crying,  neither  shall  there  be  any  more 
pain,  for  the  former  things  are  passed  away."  ' 

I  Rev.  xxi.  4. 


FOURTH  WEEK  IN    LENT. 


FRIDAY. 

BY    MAKING    PEACE. 


''  Blessed  are  the  peace-makers,  for  they  shall  be  called  the 
children  of  God."— ^'A  Matt.  v.  g. 

As  we  meditate  upon  one  after  another  of 
the  Beatitudes  with  which  our  Lord  began  His 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  we  see  how  far  removed 
they  are  from  the  maxims  of  the  world.  Even 
after  nineteen  Christian  centuries  men  are  only 
beginning  to  attain  to  them.  When  first  spoken 
they  were  in  flat  contradiction  to  the  sentiments 
of  the  whole  world.  Up  to  that  time  it  had 
been  considered  Godlike  to  make  war.  The 
favourite  heathen  deities  were  the  gods  of  war. 
Even  the  chosen  people  of  God  expected  a  con- 
quering Messiah,  a  great  Deliverer  from  their 
enemies.  Since  Christianity  has  somewhat 
changed  the  conceptions  of  deity  and  taught  us 
to  think  of  the  Prince  of  Peace  as  the  perfect 
incarnation  of  godliness,  it  is  difficult  for  us  to 


I02  Fourth  Week — Friday. 

realize  how  radical  has  been  the  revolution  of 
human  thought.  And  yet  even  now  "the 
world  "  has  not  learned  to  say,  Blessed  are  the 
peace-makers.  It  says,  Blessed  are  the  war- 
makers,  still.  Its  loudest  praises,  its  highest 
honors,  its  most  munificent  rewards  are  reserved 
for  those  who  wage  successful  war.  It  feasts^ 
and  flatters,  and  lauds  to  the  skies  the  heroes 
of  civil  or  international  strife,  and  cares  noth- 
ing for  those  who  ''follow  after  the  things 
which  make  for  peace."  It  has  not  learned  its 
great  lesson  yet.     It  still  delights  in  war. 

In  direct  opposition  to  the  spirit  of  the  world 
is  the  mind  of  Christ.  Our  Blessed  Lord  is  the 
great  Peace-maker  between  man  and  man, 
between  man  and  God.  He  visited  this  world 
"to  guide  our  feet  into  the  way  of  peace."  ^ 
He  left  it  with  these  gracious  words  upon  His 
lips,  "  Peace  I  leave  with  you,  my  peace  I  give 
unto  you ;  not  as  the  world  giveth,  give  I  unto 
you."  ""  "He  maketh  wars  to  cease  in  all  the 
world.  He  breaketh  the  bow,  and  snappeth  the 
spear  in  sunder,  and  burnetii  the  chariots  in  the 
fire."  3  Christianity,  so  far  as  its  spirit  has  pre- 
vailed, has  brought  "peace  on  earth,  good  will 
among  men."  It  teaches  men  to  "  seek  peace 
and   pursue  it."-*    It  has  helped  them    to   see 

1  St.  Luke  i.  79.  3  Psalm  xlvi.  9. 

2  St.  Luke  xiv.  27.  4  Psalm  xxxiv.  13. 


By  Making  Peace.  1 03 

that  peace-making  is  nobler,  grander,  more 
glorious  than  war-making.  It  has  taught  them 
to  sacrifice  pride,  and  prejudice,  and  privilege, 
and  even  rights,  for  the  sake  of  peace.  It  urges 
them  to  bear  opposition  and  injury  and  in- 
justice, rather  than  resort  to  war.  It  exhorts 
them  to  "  let  patience  have  her  perfect  work."  ' 
Its  God  is  the  God  of  Peace,  and  its  Lord  is  the 
Prince  of  Peace. 

If  we  are  to  be  true  Christians,  if  we  are  to 
"be  called  the  children  of  God,"  we  must  be 
peace-makers. 

I.  We  must  make  peace  between  ourselves 
and  God.  This  is  the  first  step  in  peace-mak- 
ing. It  is  impossible  for  us  to  make  peace 
between  our  fellow-men  so  long  as  our  own 
hearts  are  the  seat  of  war.  We  must  be  at 
peace  within  before  we  can  make  peace  with- 
out. When  the  leaven  of  malice  and  wicked- 
ness has  been  purged  out  of  our  own  hearts, 
when  we  have  put  away  the  sins  which  God 
hates,  when  we  have  made  our  peace  with  God, 
then  we  may  begin  to  make  peace  among  men. 
Solomon  said  of  old,  *'  He  that  ruleth  his  spirit 
is  better  than  he  that  taketh  a  city."  '^  And  we 
may  likewise  say,  He  that  hath  subdued  the 
passions  which  war  within  him  and  surrendered 
his   whole  heart  to  God  is   worthy  of   greater 

I  St.  James  i.  4.  2  Prov.  xvi.  32. 


I04  Fourth  Week — Friday. 

honours  than  the  victor  on  earth's  most  famous 
battle-field.    He  has  found  "  the  way  of  peace." 

2.  When  we  have  made  our  peace  with  God, 
then  comes  the  second  step,  which  we  shall  find 
much  easier  than  before.  We  shall  long  to  be 
at  peace  with  all  our  fellow-men.  Since  we  are 
reconciled  to  God,  it  is  far  easier  to  be  recon- 
ciled with  them.  The  grievances  which  before 
seemed  to  us  so  great,  the  injuries  which  we 
resented  so  bitterly,  the  angry  passions  which 
flamed  up  so  hotly  within  us,  how  different  they 
look  in  the  light  of  the  Cross  of  Christ.  In 
that  clear  effulgence  all  our  human  strifes  sink 
away  into  insignificance,  and  the  calm  peace  of 
God,  which  passeth  all  understanding,  fills  our 
hearts  and  minds.  **The  love  of  Christ  con- 
straineth  us  "  to  love  our  fellow-men. 

3.  Then  at  last,  having  made  our  peace  with 
God  and  with  all  mankind,  we  can  "follow 
after  the  things  which  make  for  peace."  It  is  a 
difficult  but  blessed  task,  one  which  unites  us 
very  closely  with  Christ,  the  Great  Peace- 
maker. To  still  the  strife  of  tongues,  to  quench 
the  fierce  fires  of  passion  which  consume  so 
many  hearts,  to  lead  men  into  the  way  of  peace 
— this  is  Godlike  work.  How  much  of  it  have 
we  done  hitherto  ?  Have  we  used  all  our 
opportunities  ?  Is  there  anyone  in  the  world 
to-day  to  whom  our  words  or  our  influence  have 


By  Making  Peace.  1 05 

gone  out  and  reconciled  him  to  his  brother- 
man  ?  There  ought  to  be  many  such.  Each  of 
us  ought  to  be  doing  something  in  his  own 
place  and  way  to  bring  to  pass  the  great  Chris- 
tian ideal  of  "peace  on  earth  and  good  will 
among  men." 

"  Blessed  are  the  peace-makers,  for  they  shall 
be  called  (shall  be  recognized  as)  the  sons  of 
God."  Blessed  beyond  words  shall  they  be 
who  labour  to  restore  the  broken  unity  of  the 
Church  of  Christ,  to  bring  again  the  peace 
which  has  been  lost  through  the  sins  and  sep- 
arations of  the  members  of  Christ  in  former 
times,  to  hasten  the  fulfillment  of  our  Lord's 
prayer  that  all  Christians  may  be  at  one.  Here 
is  a  great  peace-making  for  which  every  true 
heart  must  work  and  pray.  Let  us  make  it  our 
fervent  prayer  to-day  that  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  who  said  unto  his  apostles.  Peace  I 
leave  with  you,  my  peace  I  give  unto  you,  may 
regard  not  our  sins,  but  the  faith  of  His  Church, 
and  grant  her  that  peace  and  unity  which  are 
agreeable  to  His  will. 


FOURTH   WEEK   IN   LENT. 
^0e  (^tasfcrg  ^uer  ^^uereifg. 


SATURDAY. 
THROUGH    PERSECUTION. 


Blessed  are  they  which  are  persecuted  for  righteousness' 
sake,  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Blessed  are  ye  when 
men  shall  revile  you,  and  persecute  you,  and  shall  say  all  man- 
ner of  evil  against  you  falsely,  for  my  sake.  Rejoice  and  be 
exceeding  glad,  for  great  is  your  reward  in  heaven. — S(,  AfaU. 

V.  10-12, 

In  this  last  beatitude  our  Blessed  Lord 
reaches  the  extremity  of  unworldliness.  The 
idea  of  rejoicing  in  unmerited  sufferings,  of 
glorying  in  persecution,  is  utterly  alien  to  the 
tone  and  temper  of  those  who  love  this  present 
world.  It  seems  to  them  but  little  short  of 
insanity.  The  worldly  Christians  of  to-day 
think  lightly  of  the  martyrs  of  the  Ages  of 
Faith,  and  never  dream  of  themselves  enduring 
anything  for  the  cause  of  Christ. 

And  yet  the  endurance  of  persecution  for 
Christ's  sake  has  always  been  one  of  the  most 


Through  Persecution.  107 

prominent  features  of  Christianity.  The  Church 
has  always  wrung  her  successes  out  of  defeats, 
has  flourished  under  oppression,  has  thrived 
under  adversity.  The  blood  of  the  martyrs  has 
been  always  the  seed  of  the  Church.  It  could 
not  have  been  otherwise.  "  The  disciple  is  not 
above  his  master,  nor  the  servant  above  his 
lord.  It  is  enough  for  the  disciple  that  he  be 
as  his  master,  and  the  servant  as  his  lord."  ' 
The  followers  of  Christ  must  follozv  Him. 
They  must  travel  the  same  thorny  pathway 
which  He  trod.  They  must  confront  the  Scribes 
and  Pharisees  of  their  day.  They  must  have 
their  Herod,  their  Pilate,  their  Calvary.  "Ail 
that  will  live  godly  in  Christ  Jesus  shall  suffer 
persecution."  ^  We  must  make  up  our  minds 
to  that.  The  worldly  world  hates  genuine 
goodness;  is  shamed,  reproached,  goaded  to 
fury  in  its  presence.  True  goodness  will  never 
be  left  long  unmolested.  Whenever  and  wher- 
ever the  Church  is  true  to  her  Lord  she  will 
have  persecutions  to  bear. 

We  of  to-day  need  to  remember  this.  We 
need  to  ask,  What  is  our  Church  suffering  for 
Christ  ?  Where  are  her  confessors  for  the  Faith, 
her  martyrs,  her  sufferers  for  Christ  ?  Has  she 
sunk  down  into  the  low  and  mistaken  belief 
that  the  ages  of  persecution  are  past,  that  she 
1  St.  Matt.  X.  24,  25.  3  II  Tim.  iii.  12. 


io8  Fourth  Week — Saturday, 

has  no  blood  to  shed  for  Christ  ?  Let  her  look 
across  the  seas  to  that  ancient  branch  of  Christ's 
Church,  feeble  in  the  eyes  of  men,  but  glorious 
in  the  sight  of  God,  the  Church  in  Armenia, 
which  is  giving  her  martyrs  by  hundreds,  and 
her  patient  sufferers  by  thousands,  to  the  sacred 
cause  of  Christ.  Who  shall  dare  to  say  that, 
despised,  forsaken,  almost  destroyed,  she  is  not 
the  most  blessed  part  of  Christendom  ?  Shall 
not  her  splendid  example  of  faithful  endurance 
waken  the  Church  throughout  the  world  to  do 
and  dare  for  Christ  ?  Shall  not  the  story  of  her 
martyrdoms  send  us  back  to  the  heroic  days  of 
faith  to  learn  what  Christians  have  done  and 
borne  for  Christ  ?  We  do  not  know  enough  of 
the  holy  men  of  old.  We  do  not  read  enough 
of  the  lives  of  the  saints.  We  lose  the  joy  and 
stimulus  which  we  ought  to  draw  from  our 
Catholic  heritage  of  history.  The  Church  of 
to-day  needs  to  unite  herself  in  sympathy,  in 
faith,  in  suffering  with  the  persecuted  Church 
of  the  past. 

As  individual  Christians  also  we  need  to  ask 
ourselves.  Is  my  Christianity  genuine  enough 
to  subject  me  to  persecution  for  righteousness' 
sake  ?  Every  true  Christian  will  have  some- 
thing to  endure  from  the  enemies  of  the  Cross 
of  Christ.  Perhaps  not  stripes,  or  imprison- 
ment,   or   martyrdom,   but   petty   persecution. 


Through  Persecution.  109 

constant,  galling,  painful.  The  world  has  cruel 
weapons  with  which  to  punish  those  who  will 
not  submit  to  its  demands,  and  it  shows  no 
mercy  in  the  use  of  them.  If  a  Christian  will 
sacrifice  his  principles  and  conform  to  the  world, 
he  may  go  unhurt.  But  if  he  will  be  true  to 
his  Master  and  himself,  he  shall  soon  learn  how 
sharp  and  merciless  they  are.  Until  then  he  has 
not  made  full  proof  of  his  ministry.  Until  then 
he  has  not  been  prepared  by  the  stern  discipline 
of  adversity  to  enter  into  the  joy  of  his  Lord. 
"Beloved,  think  it  not  strange  concerning  the 
fiery  trial  which  is  to  try  you,  as  though  some 
strange  thing  happened  unto  you;  but  rejoice, 
inasmuch  as  ye  are  partakers  of  Christ's  suffer- 
ings, that  when  His  glory  shall  be  revealed,  ye 
may  be  glad  also  with  exceeding  joy."  ' 

This  beatitude  has  one  limitation  of  which 
we  must  not  lose  sight.  It  is  only  those  who 
are  persecuted  "for  righteousness'  sake,"  only 
those  against  whom  evil  is  said  "falsely,  for 
Christ's  sake,"  who  can  appropriate  its  promise 
to  themselves.  Much  of  that  which  we  have  to 
bear,  great  part  of  the  opposition  which  we 
meet,  is  simply  the  result  of  our  own  weakness 
and  wrong-doing.  Some  of  the  evil  which  is 
said  against  us  is  only  too  true.  We  ought  to 
endure  all  this  uncomplainingly,  but  that  is  a 

I  I  St.  Peter  iv,  12,  13. 


1 1 0  Fourth  Week — Saturday. 

very  different  thing  from  suffering  for  Christ's 
sake.  St.  Peter  spoke  out  of  a  deep  and  long 
experience  of  persecution  for  Christ's  sake  when 
he  wrote  these  words.  *'  Let  none  of  you  suffer 
as  a  murderer,  or  as  a  thief,  or  as  an  evildoer, 
or  as  a  busybody  in  other  men's  matters.  Yet 
if  any  man  suffer  as  a  Christian,  let  him  not  be 
ashamed,  but  let  him  glorify  God  on  this 
behalf."  ^ 

As  the  fruit  of  this  meditation  let  us  form 
within  ourselves  three  resolves. 

1.  That  we  will  learn  more  of  the  lives  of 
God's  saints.  It  is  a  wise  plan  to  read  devo- 
tionally  day  by  day  each  year  the  biography 
of  some  martyr  or  confessor,  and  try  to  catch 
from  the  story  of  their  lives  something  of  the 
spirit  which  animated  them. 

2.  That  we  will  expect  persecution  as  a 
natural  and  needful  element  in  our  Christian 
experience.  Thus  we  shall  not  be  taken  off  our 
guard  nor  thrown  into  too  great  anxiety  when 
it  bursts  upon  us.  We  shall  simply  accept  it 
as  a  part  and  proof  of  our  discipleship,  and  go 
bravely  and  gladly  on  our  way. 

3.  That  we  will  pray  for  those  who  despite- 
fully  use  us  and  persecute  us.  Prayer  is  the 
trusty  weapon  with  which  persecution  may  be 
met  and  mastered.     Taking  St.   Stephen,  the 

I  I  St.  Peter  iv.  15,  16. 


Throiio-Ji  Persecution.  1 1 1 


^£> 


first  martyr  of  the  Christian  Church,  as  our 
example,  let  us  learn  to  love  and  bless  our  per- 
secutors. While  they  work  their  will  upon  us, 
let  us  look  up  steadfastly  into  Heaven  and 
beseech  our  Lord  to  "lay  not  this  sin  to  their 
charge." 


FIFTH   WEEK   IN   LENT. 
^0e  (Wftsferg  ^ijer  ^m. 


MONDAY. 
THE    MYSTERY    OF    INIQUITY. 


"The  mystery  of  iniquity." — //.  Thess.  ii.  7. 

Human  life  is  full  of  mysteries,  of  things 
whose  existence  we  cannot  doubt,  but  which  we 
can  never  wholly  understand,  until  in  the  great 
hereafter  we  shall  know  even  as  we  are  known. 
The  Christian  Faith  has  its  great  mysteries,  its 
tremendous  truths,  which  transcend  the  boun- 
daries of  human  thought,  and  which,  so  long  as 
we  are  in  this  world,  can  never  be  fully  ex- 
plained to  us.  But  of  all  mysteries  one  of  the 
deepest,  darkest,  most  perplexing  is  that  of 
which  St.  Paul  speaks,  the  Mystery  of  Iniquity. 
It  is  one  which  challenges  the  consideration  of 
every  mind,  and  of  which  we  ought  especially 
to  think  in  Lent.  Let  us  take  it  as  the  subject 
of  our  meditations  this  week. 


Tlie  Mystery  of  Inicjiiity,  113 

There  is  nothing  in  the  world  more  evident 
than  the  fact  of  sin.  No  thinking  being  can 
deny  its  existence.  It  is  everywhere,  in  every 
land,  in  every  life.  It  penetrates  every  depart- 
ment of  life,  colors  most  of  our  waking  and 
sleeping  thoughts,  and  makes  its  mark  on  every 
soul.  We  cannot  take  any  true  views  of  life, 
we  cannot  form  any  wise  plans,  we  cannot  have 
any  genuine  religion,  which  leave  out  of  sight 
the  great  fact  of  human  sin.  There  is  sin  in 
the  world,  sin  in  the  Church,  sin  in  the  heart  of 
every  man.  There  is  none  without  sin,  no,  not 
one.  "All  have  sinned  and  come  short  of  the 
glory  of  God."  ^  Until  we  have  learned  this, 
we  have  missed  one  of  the  plainest  and  most 
profitable  lessons  of  human  experience. 

But  we  have  no  sooner  grasped  the  great  fact 
of  sin  than  the  Mystery  of  Iniquity  begins  to 
press  upon  us.  How  did  sin  come  into  the 
world  ?  Where  did  it  come  from  ?  How  did  it 
gain  a  foothold  here  ?  How  could  our  good 
God  permit  it  to  plant  itself  and  make  havoc  in 
His  world  ?  These  questions  have  always  agi- 
tated the  minds  of  men,  and  they  always  will, 
until  they  shall  finally  be  solved  along  with 
other  problems  of  human  life  and  destiny  at  the 
Last  Great  Day.  Holy  Scripture,  while  it 
throws  light  upon  them,  does  not  make  them 

I  Romans  iii.  10,  12,  23, 


1 1 4  Fifth  Week— Monday. 

plain.  They  remain  a  mystery.  The  more  we 
have  to  do  with  sin,  the  more  closely  we  study 
it,  the  more  fiercely  we  contend  against  it,  the 
deeper  becomes  our  sense  of  its  subtlety,  its 
terror,  its  mystery.  It  looms  above  the  world, 
and  casts  its  awful  shadow  over  human  life,  and 
leagues  its  silent  superhuman  forces  against  our 
souls,  and  sometimes  scares  us  into  helpless- 
ness and  paralyzes  us  with  vague  and  nameless 
fears.  It  brooded  over  Calvary,  and  gathered 
round  the  Cross,  and  shut  out  the  sight  of  the 
vSinless  Sufferer  from  human  eyes,  and  smote 
the  bystanders  with  a  strange  sense  of  awe. 
It  tortured  the  soul  of  our  Saviour  on  the  Cross, 
and  wrung  from  Him  that  bitter  cry,  '*  My 
God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ? " 
It  dogs  the  steps  of  every  follower  of  Christ, 
and  presses  home  upon  him  a  multitude  of  deep 
questions  to  test  his  courage  and  to  try  his 
faith. 

There  is  the  old  question  of  the  origin  of  sin. 
How  did  it  begin  ?  How  did  it  get  into  the 
world  ?  Why  did  God  suffer  it  to  gain  its  hold 
upon  men  ?  To  this  question  we  can  give  no 
complete  reply.  Basing  our  belief  upon  the 
Word  of  God,  we  may  say  that  the  possibility 
of  evil  is  inherent  in  the  creation  of  the  world. 
Evil  is  not  a  positive  thing  in  itself,  but  is  the 
perversion  and  failure  of  something  which  was 


The  Mystery  of  Iniquity.  1 1 5 

good.  When,  therefore,  God  created  man  in 
His  own  Image  and  pronounced  him  good,  the 
possibility  of  sin  began.  In  the  exercise  of  the 
free  will  which  man  must  have  in  order  that  he 
might  do  good,  it  was  open  to  him  to  choose 
the  evil  and  refuse  the  good.  If  man  was  to  be 
an  intelligent  and  responsible  being,  he  must 
have  that  power  of  choice  in  which  resides  the 
opportunity  of  sin.  But  after  this  is  said  the 
origin  of  evil  remains  a  deep  mystery  still. 

Nor  is  it  much  easier  to  explain  the  perman- 
ence and  power  of  evil  in  the  world.  "The 
Lord  looked  down  from  heaven  upon  the  chil- 
dren of  men  to  see  if  there  were  any  that  would 
understand  and  seek  after  God.  But  they  are 
all  gone  out  of  the  way;  they  are  altogether 
become  abominable;  there  is  none  that  doeth 
good,  no,  not  one.  Their  throat  is  an  open 
sepulchre;  with  their  tongues  have  they 
deceived ;  the  poison  of  asps  is  under  their  lips. 
Their  mouth  is  full  of  cursing  and  bitterness; 
their  feet  are  swift  to  shed  blood.  Destruction 
and  unhappiness  is  in  their  ways;  and  the  way 
of  peace  have  they  not  known ;  there  is  no  fear 
of  God  before  their  eyes."  ' 

Speaking  broadly,  this  is  a  true  view  of 
human  life  as  it  looks  to-day  in  the  sight  of 
God.     How  can  a  good  and  holy  God  permit 

I  Psalm  xiv.  3-7. 


Il6  Fifth  Week— Monday, 

His  world  to  continue  in  such  a  state  ?  Why 
does  He  not  come  at  once  to  right  all  wrongs 
and  root  out  evil  from  the  world  ?  This  is  the 
anxious  inquiry  of  all  true  and  loyal  hearts, 
and  it  finds  no  full  and  adequate  reply.  We 
grieve  over  the  growth  of  sin  and  the  awful 
havoc  which  it  makes,  and  long  for  the  tri- 
umphant coming  of  our  King.  We  utter  with 
increasing  anxiety  our  oft-renewed  complaint, 
"Why  tarry  the  wheels  of  His  chariot  ?  Why 
is  His  chariot  so  long  in  coming  ? "  '  And 
there  comes  no  voice  of  God  or  man  to  tell  us 
all  that  we  would  know.  Not  until  "the  day 
break  and  the  shadows  flee  away,"  and  we  stand 
in  the  dawn  of  the  eternal  Easter  Day,  shall  the 
Mystery  of  Iniquity  be  made  plain,  and  we 
shall  "see  of  the  travail  of  our  souls  and  be 
satisfied." 

To-day  let  us  take  a  few  thoughts  to  comfort 
us  in  our  ignorance. 

I.  Our  belief  in  the  goodness  of  God  need 
not  be  shattered  by  the  existence  of  sin  in  His 
world.  We  have  ample  proof  of  His  holiness 
and  His  good-will  towards  mankind.  When 
human  sin  and  the  world's  wickedness  seem  to 
impeach  the  moral  government  of  God,  we 
must  remember  how  limited  our  powers  of 
judgment  are,  how  little  we  know  after  all  of 

1  Judges  V.  28. 


The  Mystery  of  Iniquity.  1 1  7 

the  complicated  movements  of  life  in  this  world 
and  the  next.  Then  we  shall  not  be  in  haste 
to  judge  God. 

2.  Human  sin  has  called  forth  the  most  won- 
derful manifestations  of  God's  love.  The 
exhibition  of  His  patience  and  tenderness  in 
dealing  with  sinners,  and  the  sacrifice  of  His 
well-beloved  Son  for  the  sins  of  the  whole 
world  have  taught  us,  as  perhaps  nothing  else 
could,  the  depth  of  divine  love,  and  have  helped 
us  to  know  God. 

3.  God  overrules  the  evil  in  the  world 
towards  the  accomplishment  of  His  own  pur- 
poses. However  much  the  powers  of  evil  may- 
seem  to  be  enlarged,  however  insolently  they 
may  seem  to  triumph  over  us,  God  ruleth  over 
all,  and  in  His  own  good  time  they  all  shall  be 
subdued  and  even  "  the  fierceness  of  man  shall 
turn  to  His  praise." 

Let  us  comfort  ourselves  with  these  thoughts 
while  we  ponder  over  the  fathomless  Mystery 
of  Iniquity. 


FIFTH   WEEK   IN   LENT. 


TUESDAY. 

THE    PERVASIVENESS    OF    SIN. 


"If  we  say  that  we  have  no  sin,  we  deceive  ourselves  and 
the  truth  is  not  in  us. — /  St.  John  i.  8. 

Yesterday  we  thought  of  sin  as  a  falling 
short  of  the  end  for  which  God  created  us,  a 
failure  to  fulfil  all  righteousness.  To-day  let 
us  think  of  it  as  a  positive  force  in  the  world. 
Since  it  has  found  an  entrance  into  the  world 
and  planted  itself  in  the  midst  of  human  life, 
it  has  become  an  active  principal  of  unrighte- 
ousness pervading  everything.  It  is  energetic, 
aggressive,  intrusive.  It  cannot  rest  content 
with  any  conquest  which  it  has  made,  but  is 
ever  pressing  on  to  gain  new  ground.  It  is 
infectious  and  spreads  like  a  malignant  disease 
with  startling  rapidity.  It  is  but  little  abashed 
by  defeat,  and  feels  but  slight  restraint  from 
fear  or  shame.     It  boldly   enters  everywhere. 


The  Pervasiveness  of  Sin.  1 19 

It  invaded  Paradise  and  tempted  the  parents  of 
our  race.  It  corrupted  the  old  world  and  drew 
it  away  from  God.  It  beset  the  holiest  men  of 
old.  It  contaminated  the  whole  national  and 
religious  life  of  the  chosen  people  of  God.  It 
thrust  itself  into  that  sacred  solitude  where  our 
blessed  Lord  at  the  threshold  of  his  earthly- 
ministry  communed  with  God.  It  invaded  the 
sacred  circle  of  His  apostles,  and  dragged  down 
one  of  them  to  a  despairing  death.  It  entered 
the  palace  of  the  High  Priest,  and  persuaded 
the  rulers  of  the  Jewish  Church  to  condemn  to 
death  the  Messiah  whom  God  had  sent.  It 
persecuted  the  Church  of  Christ  until  the  earth 
was  drenched  with  blood.  We  are  assured  that 
before  the  end  of  the  world  it  shall  oppose  and 
exalt  itself  above  all  that  is  called  God,  or  that 
is  worshiped;  so  that  it  as  God  sitteth  in  the 
temple  of  God,  showing  itself  that  it  is  God.  ' 
To  such  awful  lengths  has  sin  gone ;  in  such 
frightful  blasphemy  will  it  culminate.  When 
we  look  out  over  human  life,  we  are  forced  to 
make  the  sad  confession,  the  trail  of  the  serpent 
is  over  it  all.  We  might  have  thought  that 
there  would  be  some  avenues  of  life  from  which 
sin  would  be  shut  out,  some  characters  beyond 
its  reach,  some  holy  places  where  it  would  not 
dare  to  show  itself.     But  no,  there  is  no  spot 

I  II.  Thess.  ii.  4. 


I20  Fifth  Week — Tuesday. 

so  sacred  that  it  will  not  venture  there,  no  heart 
so  pure  that  sin  will  not  knock  at  its  door,  no 
life  so  holy  as  to  be  beyond  the  reach  of  sin. 
There  has  been  but  one  sinless  human  Life,  and 
that  was  beyond  all  other  lives  beset  and  buf- 
feted by  the  powers  of  sin. 

What  is  true  of  sin  in  the  world,  is  still  more 
strikingly  true  of  it  in  its  assaults  upon  each 
individual  soul. 

There  is  no  soul  beyond  the  reach  of  sin. 
However  close  we  may  have  come  to  Christ, 
however  complete  our  consecration  to  Him  may 
be,  no  matter  what  heights  of  sanctity  we  may 
have  gained,  no  matter  how  truly  we  may  have 
repented  of  our  sins  past,  we  must  never  flatter 
ourselves  that  we  are  safe.  Holy  Scripture, 
with  its  frank  and  fearless  record  of  the  lives 
of  David,  and  Solomon,  and  Peter,  and  Judas, 
warns  us  that  there  is  no  life  which  sin  may 
not  invade  and  endanger  and  hurl  down  to  the 
ground.  To  think  that,  however  pervasive  the 
powers  of  sin  may  be,  we  are  out  of  their  reach, 
is  to  make  a  soul-destroying  mistake.  "  If  we 
say  that  we  have  no  sin  (that  we  are  beyond 
the  reach  of  sin),  we  deceive  ourselves  and  the 
truth  is  not  in  us." 

There  is  no  time  nor  place  in  which  we  will 
not  be  beset  by  sin.  It  confronted  our  Blessed 
Lord  as  He  came  up  out  of  waters  of  baptism, 


Tlie  Pervasiveness  of  Sin.  1  2  i 

dogged  His  footsteps  all  through  His  ministry, 
followed  Him  into  the  temple  courts,  inter- 
rupted His  teachings,  explained  away  His 
miracles,  intruded  upon  His  hours  of  solitude, 
embittered  His  agony  in  the  garden  and  on  the 
Cross,  Surely  then  it  will  not  spare  us.  In 
our  baptismal  purity,  when  apostolic  hands 
have  just  been  laid  upon  our  brow,  in  the  first 
fervor  of  some  reconsecration  of  ourselves  to 
Christ  in  the  hour  of  prayer,  in  the  house  of 
God,  beside  the  altar  rail,  in  every  hallowed 
place  and  every  holy  hour,  satan  will  seek  us 
out  and  redouble  his  assaults  upon  our  soul. 
There  is  no  safety  for  us  but  in  sleepless  vigi- 
lance and  undying  distrust  of  self. 

If  we  would  gain  the  mastery  over  sin,  there 
is  another  fact  of  which  we  must  remind  our- 
selves. There  is  no  sin  which,  once  expelled 
from  our  heart,  will  not  seek  to  return.  When 
in  Lent,  or  at  some  other  time,  we  have  gathered 
up  all  the  energies  of  our  soul  and  hurled  them 
against  some  sin  w^hich  is  undermining  our 
spiritual  health,  and  have  fought  it  bravely  to 
the  death,  we  must  not  think  that  we  shall  see 
its  face  no  more.  We  may  be  quite  sure  that 
sooner  or  later  it  will  return,  perhaps  in  some 
new  and  more  seductive  form,  and  seek  to 
regain  its  hold  upon  our  heart.  There  are 
besetting  sins  which  besiege,  and  persecute,  and 


T22  Fifth  Week— Tuesday. 

pursue  human  souls  relentlessly.  We  battle 
against  them,  and  sometimes  think  that  we 
have  overcome  them  and  put  them  once  for  all 
under  our  feet.  But  in  an  hour  when  we  think 
not  they  will  return,  perhaps  in  some  more 
subtle  form,  but  still  the  same  old  familiar  sins. 
So  long  as  life  lasts  we  shall  never  be  free  from 
their  insidious  attacks. 

These  thoughts  of  the  energy  and  persistent 
intrusiveness  of  sin  are  enough  to  alarm  and 
bewilder  us.  They  ought  to  put  us  on  our 
guard  and  make  us  very  watchful  against  the 
constantly  renewed  assaults  of  sin.  But  they 
ought  not  to  drive  us  into  despondency.  Christ 
conquered  sin  upon  the  Cross.  Ever  since  He 
won  that  splendid  victory,  its  power  among 
men  has  been  growing  less.  The  forces  that 
make  for  righteousness  are  increasing  and 
triumphing  everywhere.  They  that  are  for  us 
are  more  than  they  that  are  against  us.  "If 
God  be  for  us,  who  can  be  against  us  ?  "  '  The 
ultimate  triumph  of  the  powers  of  good  is 
assured.  Slowly  but  surely  the  glorious  victory 
of  right  over  wrong  is  being  won.  The  waves 
of  sin  '*  are  mighty  and  rage  horribly,  but  yet 
the  Lord  who  dwelleth  on  high  is  mightier."  ^ 
If  we  put  our  trust  in  Him,  we  need  not  fear 
the  powers  of  sin,  however  active  and  subtle 
I  Romans  viii.  31.  »  Psalm  xciii.  5. 


TJie  Pervasiveness  of  Sin.  I  23 

they  may  be.    Let  us  try  then  to-day,  to  deepen 
in  ourselves  these  two  thoughts: 

1.  The  sleepless  energy  and  shameless  effron- 
tery of  sin. 

2.  And  the  comforting  assurance  of  its  final 
overthrow  in  every  heart  where  Christ  is  King. 


FIFTH   WEEK   IN   LENT. 


WEDNESDAY, 

THE   DECEITFULNESS   OF    SIN. 


"  The  heart  is  deceitful  above  all  things,  and  desperately 
wicked :  who  can  know  it  ?  " — -Jeretniah  xvii,  g. 

There  is  in  the  heart  of  man  a  tendency  to 
do  wrong,  a  moral  weakness  inherited  from  the 
parent  of  our  race,  which  makes  it  easy  for  us 
to  sin.  But  there  is  also  in  the  human  heart  a 
tendency  to  do  right,  implanted  by  God  when 
He  made  man  in  His  own  Image,  and  trans- 
mitted to  every  soul  born  into  this  world. 
There  are  the  elements  of  good  and  evil  in 
every  life.  But  blessed  be  God,  the  forces 
which  make  for  righteousness  are  so  well 
intrenched  in  the  human  heart  and  are  so  for- 
midable that  the  powers  of  evil  are  driven  to 
deceit  and  strategy  when  they  attempt  to  dis- 
lodge them.  Sin  seldom  dares  to  fight  in  open 
field.     It  lies  in  ambush,  masks  and  hides  itself, 


The  Deceit  fulness  of  Sin,  125 

puts  on  friendly  guise,  and  talks  of  peace  when 
there  is  war  in  its  heart.  It  will  not  fight  fair. 
It  is  full  of  subtlety,  deceit,  and  artifice.  Its 
victims  are  won  by  guile  and  hypocrisy. 

How  seldom  does  a  man  deliberately  surrender 
himself  to  sin  ?  He  does  not  at  first  see  it  in 
its  naked  ugliness.  It  comes  to  him  cunningly 
disguised,  decently  clad,  with  all  its  repulsive 
features  hidden  out  of  sight.  It  excuses,  apol- 
ogizes for,  justifies  itself.  It  masquerades  in 
the  garb  of  virtue.  It  ingratiates  itself  craftily 
into  its  victim's  confidence,  and  lulls  to  sleep 
his  fears.  The  miser,  the  spendthrift,  the  liar, 
the  thief,  the  traitor,  the  murderer,  all  have 
their  excuses,  their  sophistries,  their  justifica- 
tions of  self.  If  sin  is  to  find  an  entrance  into 
the  heart  of  man,  it  must  disguise  itself  and 
enter  under  an  assumed  name.  Nor  does  it 
throw  off  the  disguise  as  soon  as  it  finds  itself 
within.  It  artfully  conceals  its  real  purposes, 
until  it  has  eaten  out  the  heart  of  that  wretched 
man  and  done  its  fatal  work.  Then  at  last 
there  comes  an  awful  day  when  its  borrowed 
robes  are  cast  aside,  and  it  rises  up  in  all  its 
naked  hideousness  to  rule  the  heart  which  it  has 
won.  Then  its  miserable  victim  sees  how  he 
has  been  beguiled,  and  all  the  world  is  shocked 
as  it  sees  him  plunge  into  the  bottomless  pit  of 
iniquity. 


126  Fifth   Week — Wednesday. 

Take  a  living  example  of  this.  Take  Judas 
Iscariot.  His  life  seems  full  of  promise  at  the 
start.  He  is  a  man  of  good  impulses,  of  irre- 
proachable conduct,  of  high  business  and  execu- 
tive ability.  He  is  brought  into  contact  with 
Jesus  Christ,  his  heart  goes  out  to  Him,  he 
loves  Him.  Jesus  loves  him,  He  sets  His 
heart  upon  him,  calls  him  to  be  the  trusted 
companion  of  His  daily  life,  one  of  the  chief 
foundation-stones  of  His  Kingdom  among  men. 
His  fellow  apostles  recognize  his  excellent 
qualities.  They  make  him  their  treasurer  and 
entrust  to  him  all  that  they  have  in  this  world. 
The  whole  management  of  their  affairs  is  left  to 
him. 

But  there  is  one  root  of  evil  in  his  heart,  a 
love  of  money  for  its  own  sake.  He  cannot 
bear  to  see  it  go  to  waste.  He  thinks  his  Mas- 
ter is  not  careful  enough  for  the  things  of  this 
world.  He  resolves  to  pursue  a  worldly-wise 
and  prudent  policy.  He  will  hoard  their  scanty 
store  of  wealth  more  closely  than  his  Lord. 
He  will  not  let  it  go  to  every  wandering  worth- 
less beggar  who  may  cross  their  path.  None  of 
it  must  be  spent  except  for  the  most  urgent 
need.  He  will  increase  it  at  every  chance. 
And  so  the  purse-strings  draw  tighter  day  by 
day,  his  mind  becomes  more  and  more  absorbed 
in   earthly  things,  the   deceitfulness  of  riches 


I 


The  Deceit/illness  of  Sin.  1 2  7 

gnaws  secretly  within  his  heart.  At  last  one 
day  a  holy  woman  in  an  ecstasy  of  loving 
gratitude  pours  out  from  an  alabaster  box  a 
pound  of  ointment  of  spikenard,  very  precious, 
upon  the  body  of  her  Lord.  The  heart  of 
Judas  is  torn  by  a  paroxysm  of  envious  rage. 
"To  what  purpose  is  this  waste  ?  Why  was  not 
this  ointment  sold  for  300  pence  and  given  to 
the  poor  ?  "  '  This  he  said,  not  because  he  cared 
for  the  poor,  but  because  he  was  a  thief,  and 
had  the  bag,  and  bore  what  was  put  therein. 

What  a  revelation  have  we  here !  Judas,  the 
man  of  honour,  the  bearer  of  responsibility,  the 
chosen  companion  of  Christ,  the  scrupulous 
administrator  of  his  Master's  affairs,  has  fallen 
a  prey  to  the  sin  of  avarice,  has  become  a  thief, 
has  rebuked  his  Lord.  It  will  not  be  long 
until,  goaded  on  by  his  secret  sin,  he  will  sell 
the  King  of  Glory  into  the  hands  of  His  enemies 
and  sink  into  a  dishonoured  grave.  Who  that 
knows  the  sad  story  of  his  life  and  death  can 
ever  doubt  the  deceitfulness  of  sin  ? 

Let  us  try  to  bring  this  truth  home  to  our- 
selves to-day.  We  see  the  deceitfulness  of  sin 
in  other  lives.  We  shudder  as  we  watch  it 
tightening  its  serpent  coils  round  other  souls. 
But  we  are  strangely  blind  to  its  cunning 
assaults   upon   ourselves.     It   creeps   so   softly 

I  St.  John  xii.  5,  9. 


128  Fifth   Week— Wednesday. 

into  our  hearts,  makes  such  good  excuses  for  its 
entrance  there,  seems  so  powerless  for  harm, 
simulates  the  likeness  of  virtue  so  cleverly,  that 
we  are  thrown  entirely  off  our  guard.  We  are 
too  blind  to  see  that  we  are  entertaining  evil 
angels  unawares.  Often  we  do  not  discover 
our  mistake  until  it  is  too  late.  It  was  thus 
that  the  sin  of  avarice  gained  the  mastery  over 
Judas'  heart.  It  disguised  itself  under  the 
mask  of  faithfulness  to  the  trust  imposed  upon 
him  by  his  fellow  apostles  and  his  Lord,  pre- 
tended to  be  zealous  for  their  worldly  interests, 
championed  the  cause  of  the  poor,  and  feigned 
righteous  indignation  in  their  behalf.  So 
secretly  did  it  do  its  work  that  none  of  the 
apostles  knew  what  ruin  it  had  wrought, 
Judas  himself,  when  the  sad  announcement  was 
made  that  one  of  them  should  betray  their 
Lord,  inquired  like  the  rest,  "Lord,  is  it  I?" 
It  was  not  until  his  sin  had  gone  to  the  most 
awful  length  that  he  saw  how  completely  he 
had  become  its  slave.  Such  is  the  deceitfulness 
of  sin. 

Let  us  then  look  to  ourselves.  When  the 
awful  truth  of  the  duplicity  of  sin  is  forced 
home  to  our  hearts,  when  we  see  others  falling 
victims  to  its  wiles,  when  we  hear  our  Saviour's 
warning  cry — "  Behold,  he  is  at  hand  that  doth 
betray  Me,"  when  inspired  voices  tell  us  that  by 


The  Deceit  fulness  of  Sin,  1 29 

their  sins  men  crucify  to  themselves  the  Son  of 
God  afresh  and  put  Him  to  an  open  shame,  let 
us  ask  very  anxiously,  very  earnestly.  Lord,  is 
it  I  ?  Let  us  look  deep  into  our  hearts  and 
search  out  our  sins  before  it  be  too  late. 


FIFTH  WEEK  IN  LENT. 


THURSDAY. 

THE    LAWLESSNESS    OF    SIN. 


"  Whosoever  committeth  sin  transgresseth  the  law,  for  sin  is 
the  transgression  of  the  law." — /,  St.  John  Hi.  4. 

To-day  let  us  go  a  little  deeper  into  the  Mys- 
tery of  Iniquity  and  ask  ourselves  the  searching 
question,  What  is  sin  ?  Perhaps  St.  Augustine 
will  give  us  the  best  reply.  He  defines  it  as 
"  Something  said,  or  done,  or  desired,  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  Eternal  Law  of  God."  Sin,  there- 
fore, is  disobedience,  transgression,  lawlessness. 
The  sinner  is  one  who  has  broken  loose  from 
all  restraint,  taken  things  into  his  own  hands, 
and  resolved  to  be  a  law  unto  himself.  He 
declines  to  acknowledge  any  authority  higher 
than  that  of  his  own  will.  He  makes  his  own 
judgment  supreme,  and  insists  upon  going  his 
own  way  unhindered  by  any  requirements 
human  or  divine.  Let  us  see  what  this  means 
and  involves. 


The  Lawlessness  of  Sin.  i^i 

We  find  ourselves  born  into  a  material  and 
spiritual  universe,  and  made  partakers  of  its 
life  and  destiny.  We  learn  by  many  infallible 
proofs  that  this  universe  of  which  we  are  a  part 
was  made  and  is  sustained  and  governed  by  a 
Supreme  Divine  Being,  whom  w^e  call  God.  It 
owes  its  existence  entirely  to  Him,  and  He  has 
absolute  power  over  it.  It  is  in  His  hands. 
He  governs  it  upon  certain  fixed  principles, 
which  we  call  the  laws  of  nature.  These  laws 
are  not  arbitrary  or  capricious  rules  laid  down 
by  Him  to  please  Himself.  They  are  based 
upon  the  eternal  realities  of  things.  They 
arise  out  of  the  necessities  of  the  case.  They 
could  not  be  other  than  they  are.  They  spring 
naturally  and  inevitably  out  of  the  constitution 
of  the  universe.  They  are  simply  the  perfect 
methods  by  which  a  Supreme  Being,  infinitely 
powerful  and  wise  and  good,  must  maintain  the 
universe  which  He  has  made.  They  are  God's 
way  of  securing  the  welfare  and  safety  of  the 
human  race. 

The  laws  of  God,  then,  are  only  the  ben- 
eficent provisions  which  our  Creator  has  made 
for  our  security.  So  long  as  they  are  observed 
we  can  dwell  in  safety,  and  can  hope  for  happi- 
ness. ''All  things  work  together  for  good  to 
them    that    love    God."  '      God    destined   the 

I  Romans  viii.  28. 


132  Fifth  Week — Thursday, 

human  race  for  an  eternal  life  of  happiness, 
and  placed  mankind  in  an  environment  where 
everything  was  divinely  planned  with  a  view 
to  his  best  interests.  It  is  therefore  expe- 
dient that  man  should  accept  the  conditions  of 
life  under  which  he  finds  himself  placed,  and 
make  the  best  of  them.  To  reject  them  or 
ignore  them,  to  refuse  to  submit  to  them,  to 
imdertake  to  readjust  them  to  suit  himself,  or 
to  live  in  open  revolt  against  them,  is  to  make 
a  most  awful  mistake.  It  is  to  throw  away  the 
hope  of  happiness,  to  cast  aside  all  that  his 
good  God  has  given  him,  to  put  himself  out  of 
harmony  with  his  environment,  to  thrust  him- 
self into  antagonism  with  all  the  mighty  forces 
which  are  at  work  in  the  universe. 

But  it  is  much  more  than  this.  It  is  to 
wound  and  insult  and  defy  Almighty  God. 
What  can  be  more  shameful  than  the  sight  of 
man  lifting  himself  up  against  his  Maker,  trust- 
ing in  his  own  wisdom,  presuming  to  find  fault 
with  the  provisions  which  God  has  made  for 
his  best  good,  repudiating  the  principles  of 
God's  moral  government  of  the  world,  and  liv- 
ing a  life  of  open  disobedience  to  his  Maker's 
will  ?  If  we  could  stand  apart  and  witness  for 
the  first  time  the  spectacle  of  man  rebelling 
against  God,  which  of  us  would  not  shudder  at 
the  sight  ?     Which  of  us  would  fail  to  realize 


The  Lawlessness  of  Sin.  1 33 

the  frightful  folly  and  desperate  wickedness  of 
that  misguided  man  ?  It  is  only  because  the 
sight  is  so  familiar  that  we  are  blinded  to  its 
terrible  significance. 

Sin,  then,  in  its  essence,  consists  in  a  viola- 
tion of  the  divine  order  of  human  life.  It  is 
rebellion,  revolt,  resistance  against  the  Sov- 
ereign Ruler  of  the  universe.  It  is  the  creature 
against  the  Creator,  the  child  against  the 
Father,  man  against  God.  It  violates,  out- 
rages, and  destroys  all  the  sweet  and  strong 
relationships  which  bind  men  to  God.  It  intro- 
duces disorder,  distrust,  and  anarchy  into  God's 
world.  It  means,  if  it  should  go  on  unchecked, 
the  utter  destruction  of  this  fair  world,  and  the 
defeat  of  God's  good  purposes  in  the  creation  of 
mankind.  Every  sin,  even  that  which  we  call 
the  least,  is  great  and  terrible  in  reality,  because 
it  involves  a  violation  of  God's  righteous  law. 
Every  sin  falls  like  a  blow  upon  the  tender, 
loving  heart  of  God,  and  cuts  asunder  one  more 
of  the  cords  which  bind  us  to  Him. 

But  there  is  another  side  of  this  subject  of 

which  we  need  to  think,  and  it  ought  to  come 

very  close  home  to  us.     Human  sin  involves 

outrage  to  God  and  also  hurt  to  man.  Human 
happiness  and   the   soul's   health   can   only  be 

found  in  obedience  to  God.     St.  Augustine  was 

right  when  he  exclaimed,  ''Thou,  O  God,  hast 


1 34  Fifth  Week—Thursday. 

made  us  for  Thyself,  and  our  heart  is  restless 
and  unquiet  until  it  find  rest  in  Thee."  There 
is  no  rest,  no  peace  for  the  soul  apart  from 
God.  To  forsake  Him  is  to  make  for  oneself  a 
hell,  for  the  chief  suffering  of  hell  consists  in 
the  sense  of  separation  from  God. 

Now  sin  is  the  great  separator;  it  separates 
man  from  man,  and  man  from  God.  Sin  robs 
God  of  his  creatures,  and  robs  man  of  his  happi- 
ness. It  makes  a  great  gulf  between  men,  and 
a  still  wider  one  between  them  and  their  God. 
Its  essential  principle  is  selfishnesss,  that  hateful 
passion  which  not  only  disregards  the  rights  of 
God  but  grasps  at  what  belongs  to  our  fellow- 
men,  snatches  greedily  at  the  prizes  of  this 
world  and  loses  the  good  things  of  God.  When 
we  look  out  over  the  world  and  see  the  lawless- 
ness of  sin,  we  do  not  need  to  ask  whence  come 
the  miseries  of  mankind.  We  only  w'onder 
that  the  human  race  has  not  been  utterly  de- 
stroyed from  off  the  face  of  the  earth  by  its 
sins. 

Let  us  think  to-day  of  humanity  as  a  prodigal 
race  which  has  chafed  under  the  benevolent 
restraints  of  home,  forsaken  the  shelter  of  its 
Father's  House,  demanded  its  portion  of  God's 
goods,  and  wilfully  gone  its  own  w'ay.  It  has 
wandered  into  a  far  country,  wasted  its  sub- 
stance with  riotous  living,  and  is  now  reduced 


The  Lawlessness  of  Sin,  135 

to  wretched  want  and  misery.  Its  proud  and 
wayward  heart  yet  unsubdued,  it  feeds  upon 
the  swinish  husks  of  a  gross  carnal  life,  and 
sinks  daily  into  deeper  abysses  of  wickedness. 
Why  does  it  not  arise  and  go  to  its  Father,  and 
say  unto  Him,  "  Father,  I  have  sinned  against 
heaven  and  before  Thee,  and  am  no  more 
worthy  to  be  called  Thy  son;  make  me  as  one 
of  Thy  hired  servants?"  If  there  is  joy  in 
Heaven  over  one  sinner  that  repenteth,  how 
great  would  be  the  rejoicing  over  the  return  of 
the  whole  human  race ! 

But  let  us  bring  this  question  nearer  home 
and  ask  it  of  ourselves.  We  who  are  meditat- 
ing to-day  upon  the  lawlessness  of  sin,  we  whose 
sins  have  separated  us  from  God,  we  weary 
wanderers  in  the  ways  of  this  world,  why  do 
we  not  go  back  at  once  to  our  Father's  House, 
and  cast  ourselves  humbly  at  His  feet  ?  How 
quick,  and  glad,  and  warm  would  be  our  wel- 
come home ! 


FIFTH  WEEK  IN  LENT. 


FRIDAY. 

THE    MALIGNITY    OF    SIN. 


"  And  the  Lord  God  said  unto  the  serpent,  because  thou  hast 
done  this,  thou  art  accursed  above  all  cattle,  and  above  every 
beast  of  the  field.  And  I  will  put  enmity  between  thee  and  the 
woman,  and  between  thy  seed  and  her  seed ;  it  shall  bruise  thy 
head  and  thou  shalt  bruise  his  heel." — Genesis  in,  14,  ij. 

We  were  thinking  yesterday  of  the  good 
providence  of  God,  and  of  the  way  in  which  it 
is  lawlessly  disdained  by  men  and  thwarted  by 
their  sins.  But  we  must  go  further  to-day, 
We  must  think  of  the  malignity  of  sin.  It  not 
only  declines  to  go  God's  way,  but  it  violently 
antagonizes  all  who  do  so. 

Think  of  the  malignity  of  sin  against  all  that 
is  good.  Look  out  over  the  world's  life  and 
see  how  sin  is  battling  against  the  powers  of 
good  everywhere.  How  busy  it  is,  how  tireless, 
how  sleepless,  how  vehement,  how  persistent 
in  its  opposition  to  all  that  is  good.     Waken  a 


The  Malign ity  of  Sin.  1 3  7 

good  impulse  in  some  human  heart,  and  you 
rouse  all  the  evil  passions  of  that  heart  to 
resistance.  Win  a  soul  to  Christ,  and  you  bring 
upon  it  temptations  to  sin,  fiercer  and  fouler 
than  it  ever  knew  before.  Set  some  good  in- 
fluence at  work  in  the  world,  and  you  will 
excite  all  the  violence  of  evil  against  it.  Build 
a  Church,  and  you  will  goad  to  fury  all  the 
"rulers  of  the  darkness  of  this  world."  Do 
any  good  deed,  interest  yourself  in  the  victims 
of  gross  forms  of  sin,  inaugurate  any  plan  for 
the  elevation  of  the  human  race,  make  a  definite 
effort  to  build  up  your  own  spiritual  life,  and 
you  will  soon  find  out  the  malignity  of  sin. 
You  will  learn  how  determined,  how  violent, 
how  savage  is  its  opposition  to  all  that  is  good. 
Think  of  the  malignity  of  sin  against  the 
human  race.  It  has  always  been  jealous  of 
human  happiness.  When  God  had  made  man 
in  his  own  image,  and  placed  him  in  Paradise, 
and  bade  him  enjoy  its  perpetual  peace  and 
happiness,  the  malignity  of  sin  was  exhibited. 
With  serpentine  subtlety  it  seduced  him  from 
his  original  righteousness,  made  a  great  gulf 
between  him  and  God,  ruined  the  beautiful 
creation  which  God  had  made,  and  brought 
endless  misery  upon  the  human  race.  From 
that  day  to  this  it  has  been  busy  in  God's  world, 
marring,  wrecking,  ruining  human  happiness; 


138  FiftJi  Week— Friday. 

going  to  and  fro  in  the  earth,  troubling  the 
children  of  men,  and  drawing  them  away  from 
God.  There  is  nothing  upon  which  it  does  not 
cast  a  jealous  eye,  and  lay  a  destroying  hand. 
It  defaces  and  defiles  this  fair  earth  in  which 
we  live,  converts  our  cities  into  sinks  of  corrup- 
tion and  disease,  mars  the  finest  creations  of 
the  human  mind  and  hand,  corrupts  all  litera- 
ture and  art,  debauches  the  bodies  of  men  and 
wastes  them  away  with  riotous  excess,  disturbs 
the  peace  of  happy  homes,  embitters  the  sweet- 
ness of  human  friendship,  sets  the  nations  of 
the  earth  at  war,  invades  the  Church  of  God 
and  sets  up  "  spiritual  wickedness  in  high 
places,"  darkens  all  human  history,  and  poisons 
all  human  life.  The  old  prophecy  is  being 
fulfilled  in  our  midst  day  by  day.  The  human 
race,  the  seed  of  the  woman,  has  bruised  the 
serpent's  head,  and  the  old  serpent  of  sin  is 
bruising  his  heel.  There  is  undying  enmity 
between  the  two. 

But  that  prophecy  has  had  a  more  complete 
and  awful  fulfillment  than  that  which  it  finds  in 
the  human  race.  When  the  Son  of  God  **for 
us  men  and  for  our  salvation  came  down  from 
Heaven,  and  was  incarnate  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  was  made  man,"  He 
drew  upon  himself  the  whole  fury  of  the  ser- 
pent's wrath.     He  by  his  Cross  and   Passion 


The  Malignity  of  Sin,  139 

bruised  the  serpent's  head,  but  the  serpent 
bruised  His  heel.  Sin  could  not  hurt  His  head, 
His  divinity;  but  it  struck  its  cruel  fangs  deep 
into  His  heel,  His  sacred  humanity. 

Consider  the  malignity  of  sin  against  the 
Saviour  of  the  world.  It  crowded  Him  out  of 
the  inn  at  Bethlehem,  sought  the  life  of  the 
Young  Child  to  destroy  Him,  drove  Him  down 
into  Egypt  and  back  to  humble  Nazareth,  cut 
off  the  head  of  His  chosen  messenger,  pursued 
Him  into  the  wilderness,  murmured  and  plotted 
against  Him  all  through  His  ministry,  denied 
His  teachings  and  miracles,  filled  His  followers 
with  nameless  fears  and  set  them  at  variance 
among  themselves,  betrayed  Him  to  His  ene- 
mies, falsely  condemned  Him,  scourged  Him, 
spit  in  His  face,  crowned  Him  with  thorns, 
crucified  Him,  mocked  Him  as  he  hung  upon 
the  Cross,  set  a  watch  over  His  grave,  denied 
His  resurrection,  did  its  best  to  destroy  His 
followers  off  the  face  of  the  earth,  has  never 
ceased  to  persecute  His  Church,  wages  ceaseless 
warfare  even  in  its  defeat.  Such  has  been  the 
malignity  of  sin  against  the  Head  of  the  human 
race.  It  recognised  His  holiness,  felt  instinc- 
tively His  power,  and  knew  Him  as  its  conqueror. 
This  knowledge  goaded  it  to  ungovernable  fury, 
and  drove  it  on  to  do  its  worst  upon  Him. 

Sin  has  no  mercy  upon  either  friend  or  foe. 


140  Fifth  Week — Friday. 

Towards  those  who  resist  it,  it  is  unyielding, 
implacable,  remorseless.  Towards  those  who 
yield  to  it,  it  is  more  cruel  still.  How  cunningly 
it  lures  them  on!  How  skilfully  it  smooths 
their  path  and  calms  their  fears!  How  insati- 
able it  is  in  its  demands!  How  it  dupes  its 
wretched  votaries,  until  there  comes  the  evil 
day  when  it  is  established  in  the  heart,  and  its 
disguise  is  thrown  off,  and  "at  last  it  biteth 
like  a  serpent,  and  stingeth  like  an  adder."  Go 
to  the  saloon,  go  to  the  brothel,  go  to  the  jail, 
and  see  how  sin  treats  its  victims,  how  it  rewards 
them  for  their  obedience,  how  it  blasts,  and 
blackens,  and  embitters  their  lives,  and  then 
you  will  begin  to  realize  something  of  its  terrible 
malignity.  Take  up  the  Gospels  and  read  the 
story  of  the  demoniacs  of  Gadara,  and  you  will 
witness  the  legitimate  results  of  sin  in  the  heart 
of  man. 

You  have  seen  to-day  something  of  the  awful 
malignity  of  sin,  of  all  sin,  of  your  sin.  The 
sin  which  lurks  in  your  heart  is  in  its  essence, 
and  will  be  in  its  results,  the  same  as  that  which 
crucified  your  Lord.  The  sin  which  knocks  so 
gently  at  your  door,  which  is  creeping  so 
softly  into  your  life,  which  seems  so  harmless 
now,  will  prove  just  as  deceptive,  exacting,  and 
cruel  towards  you  as  it  has  always  been  to  your 
fellowmen.      It    will    never  rest    until  it  has 


The  Malignity  of  Sin.  141 

corrupted,  conquered,  enslaved  you.  And 
when  you  have  become  its  slave  it  will  make 
hell  in  your  heart. 

Take  home  to  yourself,  then,  this  warning 
to-day.  Remember  the  malignity  of  sin.  Rec- 
ognise its  foulness,  under  however  fair  an  exte- 
rior. Resist  its  encroachments  with  all  your 
might.     Master  it  before  it  masters  you. 


FIFTH   WEEK   IN    LENT. 
^0e  (^asferg  ^tjet  §in. 


SATURDAY. 

THE    MYSTERY    OF    GODLINESS. 


"  Without  controversy  great  is  the  Mystery  of  Godliness." — 
/.  Sf.  Timothy  Hi.  i6. 

We  have  been  busy  thus  far  this  week  trying 
to  realize  something  of  the  Mystery  of  Iniquity. 
We  have  seen  the  activity,  the  deceitfulness, 
the  lawlessness,  the  malignity  of  sin.  We  have 
seen  "  the  rulers  of  the  darkness  of  this  world" 
working  craftily  together  under  the  leadership 
of  satan  to  win  men  away  from  God,  stubbornly 
combating  all  the  good  that  is  in  the  world, 
furiously  raging  against  the  Incarnate  Son  of 
God  and  all  who  follow  Him.  We  have  felt 
forced  to  cry  out.  Great  is  the  power,  great  is 
the  Mystery  of  Iniquity. 

But  there  is  a  still  greater  mystery,  the  Mys- 
tery of  Godliness.  When  we  are  seized  with 
fear  and  trembling  at  the  thought  of  the  evil 


The  Mystery  of  Godliness,  1 43 

that  is  in  the  world,  we  may  comfort  ourselves 
with  the  assurance  that  sin  is  a  vanquished 
enemy.  However  aggressive  and  insolent  it 
may  be,  its  power  is  broken;  it  can  have  no 
power  over  us  at  all  except  what  we  permit  it 
to  have.  Christ  wrestled  with  sin  on  the  Cross, 
triumphed  over  it,  inflicted  upon  it  a  complete 
and  crushing  defeat,  and  put  it  forever  under- 
neath His  feet.  His  struggle  and  his  victory 
are  alike  a  mystery.  We  cannot  enter  into  the 
deeper  experiences  of  His  passion.  We  can 
only  vaguely  comprehend  the  methods  of  His 
spiritual  warfare.  It  is  one  of  the  great  Chris- 
tian mysteries  whose  bottomless  depths  cannot 
be  fathomed  by  the  mind  of  man.  But  it  is  an 
accomplished  fact,  the  central  fact  of  human 
history,  beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt.  Dark- 
ness may  hide  the  battle  from  our  sight,  as  it 
hid  the  Suffering  Body  from  the  eyes  of  those 
who  gathered  round  the  Cross,  but  the  light 
that  broke  again  on  Calvary  revealed  the  glori- 
ous eternal  truth  that  the  Lamb  of  God  had 
taken  away  the  sins  of  the  world.  That  blessed 
light  shall  never  cease  to  shine,  however  earth- 
born  clouds  may  darken  it.  That  truth  shall 
never  fail. 

Sin  is  conquered,  man  is  free, 
Christ  has  won  the  victory. 

Great  is  the  Mystery  of  Godliness  in  the  vie- 


144  Fifth  Week— Saturday. 

tory  of  the  Cross,  and  hardly  less  great  is  it  in 
the  experience  of  each  human  heart.  The  bat- 
tle of  the  Cross  has  to  be  fought  over  again  in 
its  lesser  and  humbler  way  in  every  life.  It  is 
a  mysterious  conflict,  more  real,  more  moment- 
ous, more  supernatural  than  we  are  wont  to 
realize.  It  is  a  spiritual  combat  in  which  we 
wrestle  not  so  much  against  flesh  and  blood,  as 
against  principalities  and  powers  of  evil  angels, 
against  the  living  embodiments  of  wickedness. 
In  the  silence  and  secrecy  of  our  hearts  the 
battle  goes  ever  on,  unseen,  often  unknown  by 
the  world,  but  very  real,  very  awful,  and  full 
of  destiny.  The  craft  and  cunning  of  our  ene- 
mies make  it  always  an  anxious  struggle,  full  of 
chances  of  defeat.  They  are  spiritual,  invisible ; 
they  never  tire,  they  never  sleep.  It  is  only  by 
spiritual  weapons  that  they  can  be  overcome. 
It  is  only  by  ceaseless  vigilance  that  they  can 
be  held  in  check.  There  is  but  one  armour 
which  can  equip  the  Christian  soul.  The  old 
weapons  of  the  warfare  of  Christ  have  not 
changed;  they  have  not  grown  clumsy  and  out 
of  date.  The  v/isdom  of  the  ages  has  invented 
none  better.  The  dint  of  past  conflict  which 
they  bear  only  assures  us  of  their  power  to  repel 
our  present  foes.  The  girdle  of  truth  and  sin- 
cerity, the  breastplate  of  the  righteousness  of 
Christ,  the  firm-shod  sandals  of  the  gospel  of 


The  Mystery  of  Godliness.  145 

peace,  the  sheltering  helmet  of  the  hope  of  sal- 
vation, and,  above  all,  the  broad,  well-rounded, 
and  brightly  polished  shield  of  the  Catholic 
Faith,  these  constitute  the  only  safe  armour  for 
the  human  soul.  These  are  able  to  quench  all 
the  fiery  darts  of  the  wicked.  Having  put  on 
the  whole  armour,  the  panoply  of  God,  we  shall 
be  able  to  withstand  in  the  evil  day  when  we 
are  beset  by  the  hosts  of  sin,  and  having  done 
all  to  stand  undismayed  while  the  battle  rages 
fiercely  round.' 

But  we  are  not  left  to  our  own  devices  in  our 
warfare  against  sin.  In  order  to  confront  our 
spirtual  foes  we  need  the  help  of  spirtual  forces 
readier  and  more  mighty  than  they.  God  has 
provided  us  with  such  help. 

I.  Over  against  the  evil  angels  of  satan  are 
arrayed  the  good  angels  of  God,  more  and 
mightier  than  they.  Ceaselessly  and  tirelessly 
to  and  fro  they  go  to  carry  on  the  far-reaching 
works  of  God.  The  unseen  universe  is  filled 
with  their  busy  life.  On  every  Christian  soul 
they  wait,  over  every  Christian  life  they  watch, 
as  those  who  must  give  account  to  God  of  their 
ministries  among  men.  The  sight  of  them  in 
all  their  purity  and  power  would  strike  us  to  the 
ground.  They  are  our  defenders  in  the  hard- 
fought   fight,    a  vast   cloud   of  witnesses  who 

»  Ephes.  vi.  ji-iy. 


146  FiftJi  Week — Saturday. 

hover  o'er  the  battle-field  of  human  life,  ready 
to  lend  a  hand  in  time  of  need,  mighty  to  save 
us  from  the  hosts  of  sin. 

2.  But  we  have  something  still  better  than 
this,  an  ever-present  divine  help  in  time  of 
need.  The  Holy  Spirit,  who  sanctifieth  us  and 
all  the  people  of  God,  is  at  work  in  the  world. 
He  toileth  tirelessly  in  human  souls.  He  re- 
sisteth  mightily  the  assaults  of  sin  upon  the 
human  heart.  He  is  the  divine,  omnipotent 
Protector  of  every  soul.  We  are  not  left  com- 
fortless before  the  Mystery  of  Iniquity,  to  fight 
out  a  lonely  battle  within  ourselves  as  best  we 
may  in  our  own  puny  strength.  When  our 
Blessed  Lord  ascended  into  Heaven  He  did  not 
leave  us  to  our  foes.  He  united  with  His 
Father  in  sending  us  another  Comforter,  an- 
other Champion,  who  should  be  our  defense 
against  all  our  enemies.  The  first  great  work 
which  he  promised  that  the  Holy  Spirit  should 
do  was  to  "  reprove  the  world  of  sin,"  to  com- 
bat the  powers  of  evil  in  the  world,  and  ulti- 
mately to  root  them  out.  This  blessed  work 
He  is  now  carrying  on.  Day  by  day  the 
enemies  of  the  Cross  of  Christ  are  being  beaten 
back  and  the  domain  of  sin  is  being  narrowed 
down.  We  need  have  no  fear  of  the  final  re- 
sult. The  armies  of  God  will  prevail,  the  Divine 
Comforter  will  fulfill  His  blessed  task,  and  the 


The  Mystery  of  Godliness.  147 

Mystery  of  Iniquity  will  be  swallowed  up  in  the 
Mystery  of  Godliness.  The  operation  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  a  great  mystery,  but  it  is  one  of 
the  chief  certainties  of  the  Christian  Faith,  upon 
which  we  can  depend  with  absolute  confidence. 
Let  us  then  take  courage  in  our  warfare  against 
sin,  and  give  thanks  to  God  for  having  sent  His 
holy  angels  and  His  Holy  Ghost  "to  succour 
and  defend  us  on  earth,"  while  our  Saviour 
pleads  for  us  before  the  Throne  of  Heaven. 


SIXTH  WEEK  IN  LENT. 
Z^t  (Wtasferg  ^tjer  buffering. 


MONDAY. 

BETRAYAL. 


"See   that  thou   make   all   things  according  to  the   pattern 
shewed  to  thee  in  the  mount." — Hebrews  viii.  S- 

God  laid  this  injunction  on  Moses,  when  he 
was  about  to  make  a  tabernacle  where  men 
might  meet  Him  in  the  wilderness.  He  seems 
to  lay  it  upon  us  in  a  still  more  solemn  way- 
to-day.  We  have  been  thus  far  during  Lent 
learning  how  to  strive  for  the  mastery  over 
self,  over  satan,  over  the  world,  over  adversity, 
over  sin.  We  have  yet  to  learn  how  to  gain 
the  mastery  over  suffering  and  death.  In  this 
sacred  study  there  is  but  one  Great  Teacher  to 
whom  we  can  turn,  there  is  no  other  school 
like  the  School  of  Calvary.  Henceforth  in  our 
striving  after  the  mastery,  we  must  see  that  we 
make  all  things  after  the  pattern  shewed  us  in 
the  mount.     During  the  rest  of  this  holy  tide, 


I 


Betrayal.  1 49 

we  must  determine  to  know  nothing"  but  Jesus 
Christ  and  Him  crucified.  Let  us  gather  closely 
round  our  Suffering  Lord,  and  learn  of  Him, 
withdrawing  further  from  the  world  than  we 
have  done  thus  far,  and  hiding  ourselves  with 
Him  in  God. 

First  let  us  go  to  Gethsemane.  It  is  past 
midnight.  Through  the  gnarled  trunks  and 
pale  green  foliage  of  the  olive  trees,  the  full 
paschal  moon  is  shining,  chequering  the  scene 
with  moving  masses  of  light  and  shade.  Prone 
upon  the  ground  in  one  of  the  more  secluded 
recesses  of  the  garden,  lies  a  human  form  con- 
vulsed with  an  agony  of  grief.  About  a  stone's 
throw  from  the  Sufferer,  lie  three  men  asleep. 
Along  the  dusty  road,  not  far  from  the  garden 
gate,  moves  a  black  mass  of  men,  armed  with 
swords  and  staves.  The  stillness  is  rudely 
broken  by  the  red  glare  of  their  torches,  and 
the  clashing  of  their  arms.  At  their  head 
moves  a  familiar  form.  He  enters  at  the  gate 
and  approaches  the  Sufferer,  now  risen  from 
the  ground  and  awaiting  him  with  calm  and 
awful  dignity.  He  flings  himself  upon  His 
neck,  sobbing  "Master,  Master,"  and  kisses 
Him  again  and  again.  "The  Son  of  Man  is 
betrayed  into  the  hands  of  sinners." 

Earlier  in  this  same  fateful  night  the  Sufferer 
has  with  deep  emotion  warned  this  man^  His 


150  Sixth  Week— Monday. 

chosen  disciple,  that  he  is  about  to  betray  Him. 
Only  a  few  moments  ago  His  human  soul  was 
wrung  with  grief  at  the  thought  of  that  which 
was  to  come.  But  now  He  is  serene,  untroubled, 
benignant.  How  sharply  those  false  kisses 
stung  His  cheek,  we  cannot  guess.  How  deep 
was  the  wound  in  His  tender  heart,  we,  with 
our  duller  sensibilities,  can  never  know.  "It 
is  not  an  open  enemy  that  hath  done  Me  this 
dishonour,  for  then  I  could  have  borne  it; 
neither  was  it  mine  adversary  that  did  magnify 
himself  against  me,  for  then,  peradventure,  I 
would  have  hid  myself  from  him;  but  it  was 
even  thou,  my  companion,  my  guide,  and  mine 
own  familiar  friend.  We  took  sweet  counsel 
together,  and  walked  in  the  house  of  God  as 
friends."  '  So  the  Sufferer  seems  to  say  within 
Himself,  but  He  does  not  add  the  curse  of 
David,  "  Let  death  come  hastily  upon  him,  and 
let  him  go  down  quick  into  hell."  ^  He  makes, 
instead,  one  last  pathetic  appeal,  "Judas,  be- 
trayest  thou  the  Son  of  Man  with  a  kiss  ? "  to 
wake  him  to  repentence,  if  it  were  possible. 
Beyond  this,  there  is  not  a  word  of  blame.  His 
appeal  is  simply  this,  "  Judge  thyself,  that  thou 
be  not  judged."  And  then  He  gives  Himself 
into  the  hands  of  His  enemies.  "  He  will  not 
strive  nor  cry,  neither  shall  any  man  hear  His 

I  Psalm  Iv.  13-15.  2  Psalm  Iv.  16. 


Betrayal.  1 5  ^ 

voice  in  the  streets."  '  He  is  a  patient,  silent 
sufferer.  He  will  not  complain,  nor  condemn, 
nor  curse,  though  one  of  His  beloved  disciples 
has  betrayed  Him,  and  all  the  rest  have  for- 
saken Him  and  fled.  He  will  bury  His  grief 
in  His  own  heart,  and  speak  only  to  heal  and 
to  bless. 

Here  is  our  Divine  Ensample,  then,  to  teach  us 
how  to  bear  such  betrayals  as  may  fall  to  our 
lot.  When  friends  fail,  and  we  find  that  our 
surest  confidence  has  been  misplaced,  and  we 
are  plunged  into  the  sharp  agony  which  the  dis- 
covery of  human  faithlessness  brings  home  to 
the  heart,  what  shall  we  do  ?  Do  as  Jesus  did. 
Speak  not  one  word  but  such  as  He  spoke. 
Warn  the  betrayer,  if  it  be  not  too  late,  of  the 
awful  nature  of  his  act  ;  plead  with  him  to 
remedy  the  evil,  if  he  can,  not  so  much  for  our 
sake  as  for  his  own.  And  then  suffer  in  silence, 
giving  ourselves  up  entirely  into  God's  hands. 
If  it  seems  to  Him  good.  He  can  send  "  more 
than  twelve  legions  of  angels "  to  rescue  us 
from  the  hands  that  are  stretched  out  to  smite 
us.  If  he  does  not,  then  we  may  be  quite  sure 
that  in  God's  book  it  is  written  of  us,  as  it  was 
of  the  sinless  Sufferer,  ''  that  thus  it  must  be."  ^ 
Our  agony  of  betrayal,  great  though  it  may 
seem  to  us,  will  be  but  slight  compared  with 

I  St.  Matt.  xii.  19.  2  St.  Matt.  xxvi.  53,  54. 


152  Sixth  Week— Monday. 

His,  and  we  have  His  splendid  example  to  show 
us  how  to  master  it.  Like  Him,  let  us  meet  it 
with  uncomplaining  reliance  upon  God. 

One  thought  more.     How  did  the  human  soul 
of  our  Lord  gain  the  strength  to  meet  this  great 
crisis  of  His  earthly  life  ?     When  He  stepped 
forth  from  the  shadows  of  the  garden  into  the 
moonlight   there   was   about   Him   a   sense   of 
sublime  confidence,    a  kingly   majesty,    which 
scared  the  lookers-on,  and  smote  the  soldiers  to 
the  ground,  and   made   Him  the  commanding 
figure  of  the  group.     His  disciples,  who  in  the 
garden  had  slumbered  and  slept,  were  blinded 
and  alarmed.     But   their  Master  stood   undis- 
mayed  in   the  presence   of  His   enemies,    and 
calmly  suffered  Himself  to  be  led  into  what  He 
knew  to  be  the  Valley  of  the  Shadow  of  Death. 
What  was  it  that  made  the  difference  ?     What 
was  the  source  of  His  splendid  strength  in  that 
awful   hour  ?      The   reply   is   plain.      He    had 
prayed  in  Gethsemane,  and  He  came  forth  in 
the  power  of  prayer.     It  shone  in  His  face,  it 
spoke  in  the  tones  of  His  voice,  it  surrounded 
Him  with  an   atmosphere   of  sanctity,  it  made 
Him  a  king  among  men.     It  was  as  the  Lion 
of  the  tribe  of  Judah  that  He  came  out  to  con- 
front His  enemies. 

A  life  of  prayer  will   do  the  same   for   us. 
Communion   with    God,    fervent   prayer   made 


Betrayal.  1 5 


o 


without  ceasing,  and  deepened  into  agonizing 
earnestness  as  the  time  of  trial  draws  nigh, 
this  is  the  only  discipline  which  will  strengthen 
us  to  endure  the  faithlessness  of  man.  It  is  the 
only  thing  that  will  enable  us  to  meet  our  be- 
trayers as  our  blessed  Master  did.  If  we  would 
make  all  things  after  the  pattern  shown  us  by 
Him  upon  the  mount,  we  must  first  go  with 
Him  to  Gethsemane. 


SIXTH    WEEK   IN   LENT. 
t^c  (giasfer^  ^i?er  buffering. 


TUESDAY. 

MISJUDGMENT. 


"  He  was  oppressed,  and  He  was  afflicted,  yet  He  opened  not 
His  mouth :  He  is  brought  as  a  lamb  to  the  slaughter,  and  as  a 
sheep  before  her  shearers  is  dumb,  so  He  openeth  not  His 
mouth.  He  was  taken  from  prison  and  from  judgment." — 
Isaiah  liii.  7,  8. 

To  what  an  awful  extent  were  these  words 
fulfilled  in  the  suffering  life  of  our  Lord! 
When  *'  He  was  numbered  with  the  transgress- 
ors," the  overflowing  fullness  of  human  mis- 
judgment  was  emptied  out  upon  Him. 

Consider  first  the  misjudgments  of  His  early 
life  and  ministry.  The  dark  cloud  of  human 
injustice  hung  over  Him  from  the  first.  Men 
whispered  charges  of  impurity  against  the  spot- 
less Virgin  Mother  who  brought  Him  into  the 
world.  They  openly  ridiculed  His  humble 
origin.     "Can   any  good   come   out   of   Naza- 


JSIisjudgnicnt.  155 

reth  ?  "  '  "Is  not  this  the  carpenter's  son  ?  "  =» 
The  fanatical  Scribes  and  Pharisees  cried  out, 
"  Behold  a  man  gluttonous,  and  a  wine-bibber, 
a  friend  of  publicans  and  sinners."  3  When 
He  worked  mighty  miracles,  they  refused  to 
give  God  the  glory.  "This  fellow  doth  not 
cast  out  devils,  but  by  Beelzebub,  the  prince  of 
the  devils."  '•  The  stupid,  sodden  indifference 
of  the  worldly  world  forced  Him  to  cry  out 
against  it,  "  O,  faithless  and  perverse  genera- 
tion, how  long  shall  I  be  with  you  ?  how  long 
shall  I  suffer  you  ?  "  '=  The  gross  incapacity 
even  of  His  chosen  followers  to  grasp  the  true 
greatness  of  His  character  and  work  wrung 
from  Him  the  complaint,  "  O,  fools  and  slow 
of  heart  to  believe  all  that  the  prophets  have 
spoken."  ^  Consider  the  constant  heavy  load  of 
blind,  ignorant,  prejudiced  misjudgment  which 
He  had  to  bear,  and  try  to  realize  the  splendid 
patience  with  which  He  carried  it  through  life 
and  down  to  the  grave. 

Dwell  next  in  thought  upon  the  misjudgment 
of  Caiaphas,  and  try  to  think  how  terribly  the 
sensitive  human  soul  of  our  Lord  must  have 
suffered  in  the  palace  of  that  false  and  cruel 
High  Priest.     When  under  cover  of  night,  and 

1  St.  John  i.  46.  4  St.  Matt.  xii.  24. 

8  St.  Matt.  xiii.  55,  5  St.  Matt.  xvii.  17. 

3  St.  Matt.  xi.  19.  6  St.  Luke  xxiv.  25. 


156  Sixth  Week— Tuesday. 

by  the  help  of  base  treachery,  he  dragged  the 
Sufferer  into  that  corrupt  court  which  he  thus 
made  forever  infamous,  to  inflict  upon  Him 
without  a  shred  of  evidence  a  sentence  which 
had  been  determined  long  before,  he  showed 
the  world  what  awful  depths  of  wickedness 
there  are  in  man.  What  that  mock  trial,  with 
its  shameful  travesties  of  justice,  its  fierce  out- 
bursts of  envy,  hatred,  andjnalice,  and  its  cruel 
indignities — what  that  trial  was  to  Him  we  can 
but  dimly  comprehend.  For  the  Only-begotten 
Son  of  God  to  be  put  on  trial  by  His  own  High 
Priest,  and  condemned  as  a  common  criminal 
by  the  rulers  of  His  own  peculiar  people,  was 
an  indignity  too  deep  for  human  thought  to 
fathom  it.  But  how  did  our  Divine  Example 
receive  the  injustice  which  was  heaped  upon 
Him  ?  Except  for  a  brief  refusal  to  testify 
before  such  a  court,  He  kept  still  silence. 
While  false  witnesses  annihilated  each  other's 
testimony,  when  a  minion  of  the  court  struck 
Him  in  the  face,  while  the  High  Priest  raged 
upon  his  throne.  He  held  His  peace  until  at  last 
the  time  came  for  Him  to  speak.  Then,  at 
length,  not  before  that  corrupt  court,  but  in  the 
great  audience  of  the  universe,  did  He  open 
His  mouth  and  confess  Himself  the  Son  of 
God.  He  would  not  speak  one  word  to  save 
Himself  from  the  sentence  which  hung  over 


Misjudgment.  157 

Him,  but  under  the  most  solemn  oath  He  de- 
clared Himself  the  divine  Judge  of  all  the  earth. 
He  met  the  sentence  of  Caiaphas  by  an  appeal 
to  a  Higher  Court. 

Think  next  of  the  misjudgment  of  Herod. 
When  that  dissolute  monarch  saw  Jesus  led  into 
the  gloomy  palace  where  he  was  idling  away 
the  Passover  time,  "  He  was  exceeding  glad, 
for  he  was  desirous  to  see  Him  of  a  long  season, 
because  he  had  heard  many  things  of  Him,  and 
he  hoped  to  have  seen  some  miracle  done  by 
Him."  ^  He  instantly  forgot  his  responsibility 
as  a  judge  in  the  interest  of  a  new  and  exciting 
experience.  He  received  the  Prisoner  gra- 
ciously, questioned  Him  at  great  length,  and 
no  doubt  urged  Him  to  work  a  miracle  then 
and  there.  But  not  one  word  would  the 
Majestic  Sufferer  vouchsafe  to  the  vile,  hardened 
criminal  who  sat  upon  his  kingly  throne.  There 
was  not  a  spark  of  conscience  left  in  Herod  to 
which  he  could  appeal.  Had  there  been,  this 
painful  silence  would  have  been  the  mightiest 
appeal  that  could  be  made.  Before  such  a 
tribunal,  our  Lord  would  not  open  His  mouth. 
He  was  silent  that  the  voice  of  John  the  Baptist 
might  be  heard  crying  from  the  grave. 

Finally,  let  us  consider  the  misjudgment  of 
Pontius  Pilate.     As  we  trace  his  proceedings, 

1  St.  Luke  xxiii.  8. 


158  Sixth  Week — Tuesday. 

step  by  step,  we  find  that  his  whole  course, 
while  the  Sufferer  was  in  his  hands,  was  one  of 
low,  worldly  policy.  The  merits  of  the  case 
were  plain  enough  to  his  practised  eye.  He 
declared  over  and  over  again,  "  I  find  no  fault 
in  Him  at  all."  The  Passion  of  our  Blessed 
Lord  has  been  described  as  a  touchstone  of 
character,  revealing  the  secrets  of  all  hearts 
which  came  within  its  reach.  When  Pilate  was 
put  to  the  test,  it  showed  his  utter  lack  of 
principle,  and  made  him  for  all  time  the  awful 
example  of  an  unjust  judge.  Let  us  try  for  a 
moment  to  realize  what  it  must  have  been  for 
our  Lord,  with  His  keen  sense  of  truth  and 
right,  to  feel  Himself  in  such  hands.  How  deep 
for  Him  must  have  been  the  humiliation  of 
being  made  a  victim  of  Pilate's  wretched  policy 
of  expediency,  dragged  to  and  fro  in  chains, 
subjected  to  the  coarse  insults  of  the  cruel 
soldiery^  His  sacred  body  lacerated  by  scourges 
and  the  crown  of  thorns,  and  finally  given  up 
to  death  at  the  demand  of  a  bloodthirsty  mob. 
And  all  this,  while  His  judge  openly  proclaimed 
His  innocence. 

Let  us  learn  from  our  Lord's  majestic  silence 
and  self-control  in  this  last  stage  of  His  trial,  as 
in  all  the  rest,  a  lesson  for  the  conduct  of  our 
own  life.  We  shall  have  to  meet  the  same 
forms  of  misjudgment  which  he  endured.     We 


Misjudgnient .  159 

shall  encounter  the  misjudgment  of  pride  and 
prejudice,  as  embodied  in  Caiaphas;  of  the 
curious  cynical  world,  as  in  Herod;  of  weak, 
worldly  policy  which  dare  not  champion  the 
right,  as  in  Pilate.  Let  us  meet  them  with  the 
same  silent  dignity,  the  same  uncomplaining 
patience,  and  the  same  steadfast  trust  in  God, 
as  the  Great  Sufferer  did. 


SIXTH  WEEK  IN  LENT. 


WEDNESDAY. 
POVERTY. 


"  Ye  know  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that,  though 
He  was  rich,  yet  for  your  salces  He  became  poor,  that  ye  through 
His  poverty  might  be  rich." — //.  Cor.  I'iii.  g. 

Do  we  indeed  know  this  ?  Have  we  realized 
the  extreme  poverty  in  which  the  Son  of  God 
dwelt  upon  earth  ?  Let  us  meditate  upon  it 
to-day. 

Take  His  early  life.  Begun  in  a  stable  among 
beasts  of  the  stall;  its  infancy  deprived  of  a 
home  and  driven  into  a  foreign  land  ;  thrust 
aside  into  the  obscurity  of  Nazareth  and  the 
humble  toil  of  a  carpenter's  shop  ;  shorn  of  all 
the  advantages  and  opportunities  which  the 
world  deems  desirable  for  childhood  and  youth, 
it  was  from  the  first  a  life  of  absolute  poverty. 
Beyond  the  companionship  of  a  few  loving  souls, 
bound  to  Him  by  the  ties  of  human  relationship, 


Poverty,  1 6 1 

the  Holy  Child  Jesus  had  nothing  to  satisf}^  the 
cravings  of  His  humanity.  He  went  to  the  last 
extremity  of  want,  and  yet  how  rich  His  life 
was  in  itself.  It  needed  not  anything  which 
this  world  had  to  give. 

Take  His  public  life.  He  had  absolutely  none 
of  those  things  which  the  world  holds  dear.  He 
had  no  longer  any  home,  "The  foxes  have 
holes,  and  the  birds  of  the  air  have  nests,  but 
the  Son  of  Man  hath  not  where  to  lay  His  head,"  ' 
He  had  no  worldly  wealth.  The  bag  which  held 
the  scanty  alms  which  bought  His  daily  bread 
was  held  by  a  thief.  The  garments  which  shel- 
tered the  sacred  form  were  not  bought  with  a 
price,  but  made  and  given  by  some  generous, 
loving  hand.  The  days  and  nights  w^ere  full  of 
toil  which  brought  no  reward  in  this  world. 
He  sat  sometimes  at  the  tables  of  the  rich,  but 
only  by  sufferance,  as  a  guest.  His  intercourse 
w^as  chiefly  with  the  poor  and  destitute.  The 
only  record  which  identifies  Him  with  the  rich 
is,  "  He  made  His  grave  with  the  rich  in  His 
death."  =  The  life  of  Christ  in  the  world  w^as 
the  most  poverty-stricken  of  all  lives.  When 
He  came  to  the  end  of  it,  there  was  not  in  all 
the  wide  world  one  thing  w^hich  as  man  He  could 
call  His  own,  except  the  Cross  on  which  He 
hung. 

I  St.  Matt.  viii.  20.  2  Isaiah  liii.  9, 


1 62  Sixth  Week — Wednesday. 

It  may  be  said  that  this  was  in  accordance 
with  His  own  desires,  that  He  had  not  sought 
for  worldly  goods  but  for  souls.  It  was  for 
them  that  He  had  come,  and  toiled,  and  bled,  and 
was  to  die.  They  were  His  wealth.  Yes,  it  is 
true.  But  out  of  all  the  world  how  many  of 
them  had  He  won  ?  Abraham  hoped  to  find 
fifty  men  in  Sodom  like-minded  with  himself, 
for  whose  sake  the  city  should  be  saved.  Elijah 
had  his  seven  thousand  in  Israel  who  had  not 
bowed  the  knee  to  Baal,  and  his  hundred 
prophets  of  the  Lord,  hidden  in  a  cave.  But 
hear  the  Son  of  Man  counting  up  His  wealth  of 
souls  on  the  last  night  of  His  ministry.  "  Father, 
the  hour  is  come.  I  have  manifested  Thy  Name 
unto  the  men  which  Thou  gavest  me  out  of  the 
world  ;  Thine  they  were,  and  Thou  gavest  them 
me  ;  and  they  have  kept  Thy  word.  And  now 
I  am  no  more  in  the  world,  but  these  are  in  the 
world,  and  I  come  to  Thee.  Holy  Father,  keep 
through  Thine  own  Name  those  whom  Thou 
hast  given  me,  that  they  may  be  one  as  we  are 
one.  While  I  was  with  them  in  the  world,  I  kept 
them  in  Thy  Name.  Those  that  Thou  gavest 
me  I  have  kept,  and  none  of  them  is  lost,  but 
the  son  of  perdition."  '  How  many  souls  were 
there  whom  He  could  call  His  own  ?  Twelve 
human  souls  given  Him  by  His  Father  out  of 
I  St.  John  xvii.  i,  6,  ii,  12. 


Poverty.  163 

all  the  millions  of  living  men,  and  one  of  them 
has  become  a  devil  and  is  lost !  Beside  them  a 
little  band  of  timid,  bewildered,  half-believing 
disciples,  a  few  holy  women,  and  that  is  all. 
Here  are  summed  up  the  entire  results  of  His 
ministry  among  men,  here  is  His  whole  harvest 
of  souls.  How  few,  how  pitifully,  awfully  few ! 
O  the  depth  of  the  poverty  of  the  Son  of  Man, 
even  in  that  which  held  most  dear ! 

It  has  always  been  so.  It  is  so  still.  How 
terribly  few  out  of  all  mankind,  since  Christ  was 
lifted  up  upon  the  Cross,  have  been  drawn  unto 
Him !  Our  loving  Lord  is  still  poor.  It  is  but 
a  scanty  harvest  of  souls  which  His  hired  ser- 
vants have  gleaned  in  the  field  of  the  world. 
There  is  many  a  sheep  that  is  lost  from  the 
Good  Shepherd's  fold  and  has  not  been  found. 

The  lesson  which  we  learn  from  the  Great 
Sufferer  to-day  is  the  blessedness  of  poverty, 
and  a  hard  lesson  it  is.  Do  we  find  it  so  ?  Do 
we  feel  that  God  has  given  us  very  little  in  this 
world  ?  Do  we  see  others,  who  are  not  serving 
Him,  who  have  enough  and  to  spare  ?  Do  we 
have  to  practice  economy,  deny  ourselves,  incur 
the  scornful  pity  of  the  world  ?  Do  we  feel 
that,  after  all,  the  results  of  our  life  are  pitifully 
small,  that  "we  have  toiled  all  the  night  and 
taken  nothing,"  that  our  life  is  almost  a  failure  ? 
Then  let  us  learn  from  the  poverty  of  the  Son 


164  Sixth  Week — Wednesday. 

of  Man  to  be  content  with  what  God  permits 
us  to  do  and  to  have.  We  cannot  always  make 
a  true  estimate  of  our  accomplishments  in  this 
world.  They  may  prove  greater  than  we  think, 
when  we  see  them  in  the  light  of  the  Great 
Judgment  Da}^  If  they  do  not,  they  will  at 
least  be  greater  than  we  had  any  right  to  ask  or 
expect.  "It  is  enough  for  the  disciple  that  he 
be  as  his  master,  and  the  servant  as  his  lord."' 

Christian  poverty  is  a  blessing  in  disguise. 
While  we  meditate  upon  it  and  try  to  receive  it 
as  we  ought,  let  us  see  that  we  make  our  pov- 
erty after  the  pattern  shewed  us  in  the  mount. 
His  was  a  voluntary  poverty  which  He  chose 
of  His  own  free  will  and  accord.  He  deliber- 
ately made  Himself  poor  in  this  world  that  He 
might  be  rich  in  the  next.  Even  so,  poverty, 
welcomed  and  embraced  for  Christ's  sake,  w^ould 
be  for  us  the  truest  wealth.  He  made  Himself 
poor  in  this  world  that  He  might  enrich  all 
human  life.  Poverty  had  no  power  to  thwart 
the  great  work  which  He  had  come  to  do.  His 
life,  His  teachings.  His  kingdom  did  not  fail 
because  of  His  poverty.  They  really  profited 
by  it.  It  will  be  so  with  us.  Poverty,  borne 
not  grudgingly  and  of  necessity,  but  welcomed 
as  the  will  of  God  for  us,  or  brought  upon  our- 
selves in  the  effort  to  make  others  rich,  is  bound 
i  St,  Matt.  X.  25. 


Poverty.  165 

to  be  a  state  of  great  blessedness.  Thrice  blessed 
is  that  glorious  poverty  which  some  have  brought 
upon  themselves  in  the  generous  expenditure  of 
their  worldly  goods  for  the  saving  of  human 
souls.  What  better  thing  can  be  said  of  any  of 
us  at  the  end  of  life  than  this:  "  He  made  Him- 
self poor,  but  He  made  others  rich,  rich  with 
the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ." 


SIXTH   WEEK   IN   LENT. 
t^e  (^aeterg  ^Der  buffering. 


THURSDAY. 
BODILY    SUFFERING. 


"  The  whole  head  is  sick,  and  the  whole  heart  faint.  From 
the  sole  of  the  foot  even  unto  the  head  there  is  no  soundness  in 
it,  but  wounds,  and  bruises,  and  putrifying  sores ;  they  have  not 
been  closed,  neither  bound  up,  neither  mollified  with  ointment." 
— Jsaiah  i.  j,  6. 

To-day  let  the  Chief  Sufferer  teach  us  how 
all  bodily  suffering  should  be  borne.  We  may 
pass  hastily  over  the  toils  and  trials  of  His 
early  life  and  ministry,  the  flight  into  Egypt, 
the  hunger  and  thirst,  the  weary  journey ings  to 
and  fro,  the  watchings  and  fastings,  the  unre- 
mitting toil.  We  may  pass  over  these  and 
come  at  once  to  the  last  Holy  Week  of  His 
earthly  ministry.  We  shall  find  enough  and 
more  than  enough  of  bodily  suffering  in  that. 

It  is  an  awful  thing  to  see  how  truly  the  Son 
of  Man  could  say  of   Himself,  "There   is  no 


Bodily  Suffering.  167 

whole  part  in  My  body,"  '  how  every  member 
of  His  human  frame  shared  in  His  sufferings. 
Consider.  His  sacred  head  was  crowned  with 
cruel  thorns  in  mockery  of  His  kingly  claims. 
Upon  His  brow  were  gathered  great  drops  of 
bloody  sweat,  showing  how  His  body  shared  in 
the  agony  of  His  soul.  His  eyes  were  tortured 
by  the  sight  of  His  exectioners,  the  grief  and 
desertion  of  His  followers,  the  fanatic  fury  of 
His  murderers.  They  were  scorched  by  bitter 
tears.  His  ears  were  deafened  by  the  horrid 
din  of  denials,  mockeries,  and  false  accusations 
which  followed  Him  even  to  the  Cross  and 
clamoured  round  Him  there.  His  cheeks  were 
stung  with  shameful  blows,  and  drenched  with 
spittle  from  the  coarse  mouths  of  the  soldiery. 
His  lips  were  defiled  by  a  traitor's  kiss,  and 
rudely  struck  by  a  minion  of  the  High  Priest's 
court.  His  tongue  was  parched  with  thirst, 
they  gave  Him  gall  and  vinegar  to  drink.  His 
shoulders  were  lacerated  by  the  scourge  and 
bruised  by  the  heavy  cross.  His  side  was 
pierced  with  a  spear.  Rough  nails  were  driven 
through  the  delicate  nerves  of  His  hands  and 
feet.  He  died  of  a  broken  heart.  His  whole 
body  was  so  bruised  and  torn  that  you  might 
"tell  all  His  bones."  "From  the  sole  of  the 
foot  even  unto  the  head,  there  is  no  soundness 

I  Psalm  xxxviii.  7. 


1 68  SixtJi  Week — Thursday. 

in  it."  And  to  the  description  of  His  wounds 
we  may  add  the  prophet's  words,  "They  have 
not  been  closed,  neither  bound  up,  neither 
mollified  with  ointment."  It  was  an  awful 
aggravation  of  His  bodily  suffering  that  there 
was  no  gentle  loving  hand  to  dress  His  wounds. 
He  seemed  forsaken  by  God  and  man  in  the 
time  of  His  sorest  need. 

We  need  no  more  to  convince  us  that  our 
Blessed  Lord  was  the  Chief  of  Sufferers.  His 
capacity  for  suffering  was  far  beyond  that  of 
any  of  the  children  of  men.  None  of  us  can 
ever  suffer  so  keenly  as  He  could.  Nor  will  any 
of  us  ever  be  called  upon  to  endure  such  a  list  of 
tortures  as  that  which  we  have  just  enumerated. 
Some  of  us  will  have  pains  and  sufferings  arising 
from  the  weakness  of  our  flesh,  and  a  few  will 
have  insulting  blows  as  a  part  of  our  discipline. 
But  even  at  the  worst  our  bodily  sufferings  will 
be  but  slight  compared  with  His.  It  will  never 
be  possible  for  us  to  say  with  such  literal  truth 
as  did  He,  that  there  is  no  whole  part  in  our 
body.  Nor  will  any  of  our  sufferings  be  so 
undeserved  as  His.  Ours  are  but  seldom  brought 
upon  us  by  the  injustice  or  malignity  of  enemies. 
They  are  generally  only  the  inevitable  results 
of  our  own  folly  and  self-indulgence  and  sin. 
If  we  would  confess  the  truth,  we  should  cry 
out  as  did  the  penitent  thief  upon  the  cross, 


Bodily  Suffering,  169 

"We  indeed  justly,  for  we  receive  tlie  due 
reward  of  our  deeds,  but  this  man  hath  done 
nothing  amiss."  ^  In  all  respects  then,  in  ex- 
tent, in  intensity,  and  in  brutality,  "our  light 
affliction  which  is  but  for  a  moment "  is  not  to 
be  compared  with  His  deeper  sufferings.  We 
can  only  follow  Him  a  little  way  into  the  hidden 
depths  of  His  suffering  life.  But  if  we  are  to 
be  made  like  unto  Him,  we  must  take  those 
few  steps,  and  must  see  that  they  are  planted 
in  the  way  where  Christ  has  gone  before. 

How  then  shall  we  bear  the  fewer  and  lighter 
bodily  sufferings  which  may  fall  to  our  lot  ?  Let 
us  look  upon  the  Great  Sufferer,  and  see  how  He 
bears  Himself  amidst  the  most  unmerited  inju- 
ries and  excruciating  pains.  We  find  Him  abso- 
lute master  of  Himself.  He  does  not  shrink  from 
the  scourge,  or  the  crown  of  thorns,  or  even 
from  the  Cross.  He  makes  no  protest  against 
the  injustice  and  cruelty  of  His  persecutors. 
He  utters  not  one  word  of  complaint  throughout 
the  whole  long  tragedy  of  suffering.  He  seems 
all  along  to  be  saying  within  Himself,  "  I  have 
a  baptism  to  be  baptised  with,  and  how  am  I 
straitened  until  it  be  accomplished  ! "  ^  The 
quenchless  light  of  a  great  purpose  shines  in  His 
eyes.  His  face  is  benignant,  radiant  with  un- 
broken peace  and  serenity.  His  lips  are  opened 
I  St.  Luke  xxiii.  41.  z^t.  Luke  xii.  50. 


170  six  til  Week — Thursday. 

only  to  warn  and  to  bless.  His  whole  body, 
even  when  smarting  under  the  lash  and  quiver- 
ing on  the  Cross,  is  under  a  sublime  self-con- 
trol. It  suffers  in  every  part,  but  the  tireless 
patience  of  the  Great  Sufferer  supports  Him  to 
the  bitter  end.  There  is  one  splendid  fact 
which  enables  Him  to  endure  all  things,  even 
that  eternal  truth  which  He  had  asserted  long 
before,  **  I  and  my  Father  are  one." 

Here  is  our  great  lesson  then.  It  was  the 
serene  consciousness  of  unbroken  union  with 
the  Father,  which  lifted  Him  aloft  and  enabled 
Him  to  endure  as  seeing  Him  who  is  invisible. 
This  was  the  secret  of  His  strength.  Just  so 
it  is  the  assurance  of  union  with  Christ  in  His 
sufferings  which  will  support  us  in  the  hour 
of  mortal  grief  and  pain.  To  take  our  suffer- 
ings and  unite  them  with  those  of  Christ,  and 
offer  them  to  God  with  His,  is  to  sweeten  and 
sanctify  them  and  take  away  all  in  them  that 
was  terrible.  If  borne  with  patience  for  Christ's 
sake,  with  devout  recollection  of  those  greater 
pains  which  He  endured  for  us,  our  bodily  afflic- 
tions will  work  no  harm  to  our  souls,  but  will 
only  conform  us  closer  to  our  suffering  Lord. 
St.  Peter  urges  this  truth  upon  his  converts 
with  convincing  force  in  words  which  we  ought 
never  to  forget.  "  Beloved,  think  it  not  strange 
concerning  the  fiery  trial  which  is  to  try  you,  as 


Bodily  Suffering.  I/^ 

though  some  strange  thing  happened  unto  you. 
But  rejoice,  inasmuch  as  ye  are  partakers  of 
Christ's  sufferings;  that  when  His  glory  shall 
be  revealed,  ye  may  be  glad  also  with  exceed- 
ing joy."  ' 

I  I  St.  Peter  iv.  12,  13. 


SIXTH  WEEK  IN  LENT. 
Z^t  (^tasferg  ^uer  buffering. 


FRIDAY. 

MENTAL    SUFFERING. 


"My  soul  is  exceeding  sorrowful,  even  unto  death." — Sf. 
A/aU.  xxvi.  ^8. 

While  we  recognize  the  greatness  of  the 
bodily  sufferings  of  our  Blessed  Lord,  we  must 
remember  that  in  the  garden,  in  the  judgment 
hall,  and  on  the  Cross  they  were  exceeded  by 
the  sufferings  of  His  soul.  Perhaps  the  bodily 
sufferings  appeal  more  directly  to  us  and  seem 
the  more  shameful  to  our  minds,  but  evidently 
to  Him  they  were  not  so.  His  severest,  crud- 
est agony  was  of  the  mind  and  heart.  There 
is  abundant  evidence  that  He  was  sometimes  so 
absorbed  in  the  travail  of  His  soul  as  to  be 
almost  unconscious  of  physical  pain. 

To-day  let  us  try  to  think  what  it  was  which 
made  His  soul  so  exceeding  sorrowful. 

I.  The  ingratitude  of  men.  There  were  so 
many  who  had  heard  His  gracious   words,   so 


Mental  Suffering.  I  ^^ 

few  who  believed  in  Him.  Out  of  all  that 
wide,  wicked  world,  which  He  was  dying  to 
save,  there  were  so  few  who  acknowledged  what 
He  was  doing  for  them,  so  many  who  would 
not  come  to  Him  that  they  might  have  life. 
The  great  stupid,  sodden,  sinful  world  held 
blindly  on  its  way,  unmindful  of  its  Saviour's 
tears,  and  pains,  and  death.  Even  "  His  own," 
the  few  faithful  souls  who  loved  Him  and  had 
clung  to  Him,  were  now  amongst  the  chief 
causes  of  His  grief.  Judas  had  betrayed  Him, 
Peter  had  denied  Him,  and  all  the  rest  had 
deserted  Him  and  fled.  All  but  one  of  them 
would  return  to  Him  again,  and  none  of  them 
would  be  lost  save  the  son  of  perdition.  But 
for  vast  multitudes  of  living  men  His  sufferings 
and  death  would  be  in  vain.  His  soul  was  torn 
with  an  awful  sense  of  the  loss  of  souls  by  their 
own  blindness  and  unbelief. 

2.  He  felt  also  the  scorn  of  men.  It  dogged 
His  footsteps  everywhere  He  went,  opposed 
Him  all  through  His  ministry,  clamoured  for  His 
life  before  the  judgment  seat,  and  culminated 
round  His  Cross.  As  we  look  on,  it  seems  to  us 
a  strange  and  almost  incomprehensibly  cruel 
thing  that  men  could  thus  scorn  their  Saviour 
and  their  God.  We  shudder  at  the  sight.  But 
what  must  it  have  been  to  Him !  How  sharply 
must  every  hateful  act  and  word  of  scorn  have 


174  Sixth  Week — Friday. 

stung  His  tender  heart !  How  deeply  must  His 
kingly  soul  have  resented  every  insult  which 
was  aimed  at  Him !  The  mind  of  man  cannot 
fathom  the  mind  of  Christ,  nor  can  we  probe 
the  wounds  inflicted  in  it  by  the  scorn  of  men. 
But  we  can  comprehend  enough  of  them  to 
overwhelm  us  with  shame  and  horror  at  the 
desperate  wickedness  which  could  inflict  such 
cruel  wounds  upon  the  heart  of  our  loving 
Lord. 

3.  Consider,  too,  how  our  Sinless  Saviour 
suffered  from  contact  with  sin.  What  was  it 
that  made  the  agony  of  Gethsemane  so  intense  ? 
It  was  sin,  the  sins  of  the  whole  world,  the 
great  black  mass  of  human  sinfulness  which 
loomed  so  large  as  to  darken  the  whole  horizon 
of  His  mind.  The  time  had  come  for  Him  to 
take  upon  Him  the  iniquity  of  us  all.  But  if 
He  was  to  take  away  the  sins  of  the  world.  He 
must  touch  them,  they  must  come  home  to 
Him,  He  must  feel  the  weight  of  them.  This 
close  contact  with  sin  was  one  of  the  things 
which  made  him  so  exceeding  sorrowful  in 
Gethsemane. 

Even  to  us,  with  our  hardened  hearts,  the 
sight  of  gross  and  sensual  sin  is  terrible;  we 
shudder  and  shrink  away  from  it.  But  what 
must  it  have  been  to  His  pure  eyes  and  spot- 
less   soul  ?      Sin   was   unspeakably   hateful    to 


Mental  Suffering.  1 75 

Him,  His  soul  recoiled  violently  from  its  pres- 
ence, and  suffered  keenly  so  long  as  it  was  in 
sight.  No  wonder  then  that  when  the  accumu- 
lated wickedness  of  our  fallen  race,  from  the 
sin  of  the  first  Adam  down  to  the  last  crime 
which  shall  be  committed  to  the  end  of  time, 
when  this  mighty  mass  of  evil  gathered  itself 
up  and  fell  with  its  full  weight  upon  Him,  no 
wonder  that  it  crushed  Him  to  the  earth.  No 
wonder  that  as  he  felt  Himself  enveloped  in  its 
loathsome  embrace,  "  His  sweat  was  as  it  were 
great  drops  of  blood  falling  down  to  the 
ground,"  '  It  is  not  strange  that  as  he  looked 
into  the  depths  of  the  bitter  cup  of  human 
iniquity  He  cried  in  agony,  "  O  my  Father,  if 
it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me."  ^  But 
it  was  not  possible.  God  had  put  it  to  His  lips, 
and  He  drank  it  to  the  dregs. 

4.  Finally,  let  us  think  of  the  suffering  which 
was  involved  in  His  separation  from  God.  He 
hung  upon  the  Cross  as  the  Lamb  of  God  which 
was  to  take  away  the  sin  of  the  world,  the 
Second  Adam  in  whom  were  summed  up  the 
destinies  of  the  human  race.  His  sacred 
humanity  was  in  the  closest  relationship  with 
mankind.  But  mankind  was  deep  sunk  in  sin, 
had  corrupted  itself,  and  was  in  rebellion 
against  God.     If  He  was  to  be  identified  with 

»  St.  Luke  xxii.  44.  2  St.  Matt.  xxvi.  36. 


176  Sixth  Week — Friday. 

it,  to  be  its  representative,  it  was  inevitable 
that  His  human  nature  must  feel  the  weight  of 
God's  displeasure  against  sin.  The  dark 
shadows  of  sin  must  gather  round  His  human 
soul,  and  while  he  bears  the  burden  of  a  world's 
sins  He  must  feel  the  terrible  desolation  of  a 
soul  that  is  cut  off  from  God.  "  He  made  Him 
to  be  sin  for  us,  who  knew  no  sin."' 

This  it  was,  as  we  may  reverently  think, 
which  drew  from  Him  that  horror-stricken  cry, 
the  most  appalling  sound  ever  heard  by  the  ears 
of  man,  "My  God,  My  God,  why  hast  thou 
forsaken  Me  ? "  His  human  soul  had  thus  far 
dwelt  in  the  light  of  the  Father's  countenance, 
but  now  **  God  made  as  though  He  heard  Him 
not,"  and  He  "become  like  them  that  go  down 
into  the  pit."  =^ 

Such  were  some  of  the  chief  things  which  our 
Lord  suffered  in  His  soul.  In  proportion  as  we 
are  Christlike,  shall  we  comprehend  these  suf- 
ferings, and  shall  they  be  laid  upon  us.  Thus 
we  may  judge  ourselves,  that  we  be  not  judged 
of  God.  Let  us  ask  ourselves  to-day  what  is 
our  estimate  of  sin.  Can  we  look  upon  it  with 
composure  ?  Do  we  suffer  at  the  sight  of  it  ? 
Does  the  consciousness  of  the  world's  sin  bur- 
den our  souls,  and  distress  us  as  it  did  our 
righteous  Lord  ?  Do  we  feel  the  weight  of  the 
1  II.  Cor.  V.  21,  2  Psalm  xxviii.  i. 


Mental  Suffering.  i  7  7 

sins  of  our  lost  race  resting  heavily  upon  our 
hearts,  and  making  a  great  gulf  between  God 
and  man  ?  Are  we  sensitive  to  sin  or  not  ? 
Here  is  an  unfailing  index  of  our  soul's  health. 
Unless  we  are  keenly  alive  to  the  terrible  havoc 
which  sin  has  made  and  is  making  in  God's 
world,  we  have  not  the  mind  of  Christ.  Unless 
we  sorrow  over  the  sins  of  men,  and  grieve 
because  of  our  own  wickedness,  it  is  not  well 
with  our  souls. 


SIXTH  WEEK  IN  LENT, 
^^e  (^aeferg  ^t>er  buffering. 


SATURDAY. 

THE    REWARD    OF    SUFFERING. 


"  Being  found  in  fashion  as  a  man,  He  humbled  Himself  and 
became  obedient  unto  death,  even  unto  the  death  of  the  cross. 
Wherefore  God  also  hath  highly  exalted  Him,  and  given  Him  a 
name  which  is  above  every  name,  that  at  the  name  of  Jesus 
every  knee  should  bow." — Phil.  {.  S,  g,  lo. 

Passion  Week  is  drawing  to  its  close.  Day 
by  day  we  have  tried  to  realize  the  Passion  of 
our  Lord  more  clearly  than  before.  To-day  we 
may  turn  to  its  reward. 

How  sweet  it  must  have  been  to  Him  after 
the  toil,  the  agony,  the  Cross — to  enter  into  His 
reward !  How  full  of  restful  satisfaction  must 
have  been  the  Sabbath  calm  in  which  He 
awaited  the  dawn  of  the  great  Easter  Day! 
We  can  measure  the  sweetness  of  the  rest  by 
the  bitterness  of  the  suffering.  But  how  shall 
we  even  faintly  imagine  the  blessedness  of  the 
reward?     How  shall  we  realize  the  joy  of  re- 


TJie  Reward  of  Suffering.  179 

union  with  the  Father  in  Heaven,  the  satisfac- 
tion of  having  finished  the  work  His  Father 
had  given  Him  to  do,  the  peace  of  Paradise 
following  so  close  upon  the  horror  of  Calvary? 
How  imperfectly  after  all  do  we  grasp  the 
meaning  of  the  old  familiar  words : 

"  The  strife  is  o'er,  the  battle  done ; 
The  victory  of  Hfe  is  won, 
The  song  of  triumph  is  begun." 

We  sing  them  with  some  gladness  on  Easter 
Day,  but  do  we  ever  stop  to  think  how  much 
they  meant  to  our  Lord  and  His  few  faithful 
followers,  how  much  they  ought  to  mean  to  us? 
How  shall  we  estimate  the  eternal  weight  of 
glory  which  was  purchased  for  them  and  for  us 
by  His  sufferings?  That  glory  could  never 
have  been  reached  except  through  the  way  of 
sorrows  which  He  trod.  Withotit  the  Cross 
there  would  have  been  no  crown  for  the  Son  of 
Man.  The  sufferings  of  our  Lord  were  the 
steep  and  painful  steps  which  led  up  to  the 
throne  of  His  glory.  It  was  obedience  unto 
death,  even  the  death  of  the  Cross,  which  gave 
Him  a  Name  which  is  above  every  name. 

Let  us  learn  from  our  Lord's  Passion  a  lesson 
for  ourselves.  We  shall  have  some  suffering  to 
bear  in  this  world  whether  we  will  or  no.  But 
there  are  two  ways  in  which  we  may  bear  it.  We 
may  meet  it  as  Christ  did,  or  as  the  world  does. 


l8o  Sixth  Week — Saturday. 

1.  The  world  regards  all  suffering  as  an  un- 
mixed evil.  It  considers  poverty,  and  pain, 
and  disaster,  and  death  as  terrible  calamities. 
It  dreads  them,  shuns  them,  writhes  under 
their  unwelcome  weight,  and  struggles  vio- 
lently to  shake  them  off.  It  never  says:  "It 
is  good  for  me  that  I  have  been  in  trouble,"  ' 
as  David  did.  It  makes  no  use  of  suffering, 
and  finds  no  blessing  in  it. 

2.  But  the  attitude  of  our  divine  Lord 
towards  suffering  was  very  different.  He 
gladly  gave  Himself  up  to  it  and  bore  it 
patiently  and  unflinchingly  even  in  its  severest 
forms.  He  gloried  in  it  as  an  honourable  thing. 
He  sanctified  it  and  offered  it  up  to  the  Father 
as  something  acceptable  in  His  sight. 

We  may  look  upon  suffering  in  either  of  these 
two  lights.  We  may  unite  ourselves  with  the 
world  in  our  sufferings,  or  with  Christ.  But 
we  must  remember  that  there  is  no  promise 
and  no  hope  attached  to  the  worldly  view  of 
suffering.  It  offers  no  recompense  of  reward. 
It  bids  its  votaries  bear  their  afflictions  with  as 
much  stoical  self-control  as  they  can  command  in 
the  face  of  a  cruel  necessity.  But  it  holds  out 
no  hope  of  reward  to  him  who  bears  them  well. 

The  Christian  view  is  a  much  brighter  one. 
It  is  firmly  convinced  that  every  trial  bravely 

I   Psalm  cxix.  71. 


The  Reward  of  Suffering.  l8i 

borne  will  bring  its  reward,  that  every  suf- 
fering united  with  those  of  Christ  will  be 
acceptable  in  the  sight  of  God,  that  every  grief 
may  be  converted  into  joy,  if  welcomed  as  a 
part  of  God's  wholesome  discipline  for  the 
strengthening  of  our  souls.  This  is  true  even 
in  the  minutest  details  of  our  daily  life.  Even 
petty  trials,  if  borne  in  the  spirit  of  Christ, 
become  a  means  of  grace. 

"  The  trivial  round,  the  common  task, 
Would  furnish  all  we  ought  to  ask ; 
Room  to  deny  ourselves ;  a  road 
To  bring  us  daily  nearer  God."  ^ 

Suffering  with  Christ  brings  us  two  great 
rewards :  it  is  strengthening  to  the  soul,  and  it 
unites  us  to  God. 

I.  It  is  an  educative  discipline  for  our  souls. 
Sorrow  and  pain  have  marvellous  power  to 
chasten  and  refine  the  human  heart.  There  is 
no  strong  and  lofty  character  which  has  not 
been  matured  by  suffering,  It  draws  out  all 
the  latent  powers  of  our  being  as  nothing  else 
can.  Everyone  needs  it  for  the  full  develop- 
ment of  his  character.  The  highest  elevations 
of  moral  virtue  can  only  be  reached  by  those 
who  have  learned  to  suffer  and  be  strong.  Pain 
is  power.  The  men  of  sorrow  have  always 
been  men  of  might.  The  perfect  man  is  the 
Chief  Sufferer  who  hung  upon  the  Cross. 

1  Keble's  Christian  Year,     Morning  Hymn. 


1 82  Sixth  Week — Saturday. 

2.  But  the  patient  endurance  of  suffering  does 
more  than  strengthen  us,  it  brings  us  close  to 
God.  It  is  sorrow  rather  than  joy  that  warms 
human  sympathy  and  brings  about  the  fellow- 
ship of  kindred  minds.  It  is  those  who  have 
suffered  together  who  know  each  other  best. 
There  is  a  freemasonry  of  sorrow  which  arouses 
all  the  noblest  sympathies  of  the  soul.  The  old 
adage  that  "Misery  loves  company,"  finds  its 
highest  fulfilment  in  the  Communion  of  Saints. 
In  the  Household  of  Faith 

"  We  share  our  mutual  woes, 
Our  mutual  burdens  bear, 
And  often  for  each  other  flows 
The  sympathizing  tear." 

The  power  of  Christian  sympathy  is  one  of  the 
mightiest  influences  in  the  world.  And  we  are 
indebted  for  it  largely  to  the  existence  of 
human  suffering. 

But  suffering  does  more  than  unite  us  to  our 
fellowmen,  it  draws  us  close  to  God.  We  can 
come  nearer  to  Christ  in  our  sorrows  than  in 
our  joys.  Indeed  we  cannot  come  into  close 
union  with  Him  without  suffering.  He  Him- 
self has  said,  "  If  any  man  will  come  after  me, 
let  him  deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross  and 
follow  me."  '  There  was  so  much  suffering  in 
His  earthly  ministry,  He  was  so  truly  a  man  of 

I  St.  Matt.  xvi.  24. 


The  Reward  of  Suffering.  1 83 

sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief,  that  we  can- 
not hope  to  be  Hke  Him  or  to  be  vitally  joined 
with  Him  until  we  have  become  partakers  of 
His  sufferings.  The  Way  of  the  Cross  is  the 
only  way  to  union  with  God  in  Christ.  Those 
who  walk  in  it  to  the  end  have  an  exceeding 
o-reat  reward.  It  was  of  a  countless  multitude 
of  such  faithful  souls  whom  he  saw  before  the 
throne  of  God  that  St.  John  the  Divine  was 
told,  "  These  are  they  which  came  out  of  great 
tribulation,  and  have  washed  their  robes  and 
made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb. 
Therefore  are  they  before  the  throne  of  God, 
and  serve  Him  day  and  night  in  His  temple, 
and  He  that  sitteth  on  the  throne  shall  dwell 
among  them.  They  shall  hunger  no  more, 
neither  thirst  any  more,  neither  shall  the  sun 
light  on  them,  nor  any  heat.  For  the  Lamb 
which  is  in  the  midst  of  the  throne  shall  feed 
them,  and  shall  lead  them  unto  living  fountains 
of  waters;  and  God  shall  wipe  away  all  tears 
from  their  eyes."  ' 

I  Revelation  vii.  I4-I7> 


HOLY  WEEK. 


MONDAY. 
WHAT    IS   DEATH  ? 


"  It  is  appointed  unto  men  once  to  die." — Hebrews  ix.  a'j. 

Among  all  the  changes  and  chances  of  this 
mortal  life  there  is  one  great  certainty.  There 
is  one  event  of  which,  however  we  may  forget 
it  or  disguise  it,  we  are  sure.  We  shall  die. 
This  is  the  one  great  fixed  fact  of  the  future. 
It  is  not  wise  nor  safe  to  blind  ourselves  to  it, 
nor  to  postpone  all  thought  of  it  until  it  comes. 
We  shall  have  to  meet  death.  Let  us  prepare 
to  meet  and  master  it.  The  record  of  our 
Lord's  death  upon  the  Cross  has  marvellous 
power  to  instruct  and  comfort  us.  It  can  teach 
us  how  to  convert  death  into  the  birthday  of 
immortal  life.  We  have  been  learning  from 
Him  how  to  live.  Let  us  try  this  week  to  learn 
from  Him  how  to  die. 

To-day  let  us  ask  ourselves  what  is  death, 


What  is  Death?  185 

and  what  are  its  results.  Death  is  simply  this, 
the  separation  of  two  things  which  God  has 
joined  together,  the  parting  asunder  for  a  time 
of  body  and  soul.  It  is  not  the  destruction  of 
either  of  them.  It  cannot  annihilate  my  body 
nor  my  soul.  My  body  shall  rise  again  in  the 
resurrection  at  the  last  day,  my  soul  cannot 
cease  to  exist.  What  happens  at  death  is  ex- 
actly this — the  soul  leaves  the  body,  in  which 
it  has  dwelt  as  in  a  tenement,  to  go  for  awhile 
into  another  sphere  of  life  where  it  is  no  longer 
"in  the  flesh,"  but  "in  the  spirit."  Meantime 
"  my  flesh  also  shall  rest  in  hope,"  ^  in  hope  of 
that  great  day  when  body  shall  be  joined  again 
to  soul,  and  they  shall  be  forever  one.  Death 
then  is  the  separation  of  the  body  from  the 
soul. 

No  doubt  one  of  the  chief  reasons  why  we 
dread  the  approach  of  death  is  because  it  is  the 
great  separator.  It  is  natural  for  us  to  fear 
death.  It  is  so  mighty,  so  resistless,  so  mys- 
terious a  power  that  we  cannot  think  of  it  with- 
out awe,  we  cannot  face  it  without  anxiety. 
We  see  it  doing  its  silent-  work,  and  we  are 
afraid  of  it.  It  takes  some  fair  human  body, 
perhaps  in  the  full  vigour  of  health,  perhaps 
wasted  by  disease,  and  separates  it  from  the 
indwelling  soul.     It  takes  human  lives  and  lifts 

I  Psalm  xvi.  lo. 


i86  Holy   Week— Monday. 

them  out  of  all  the  surroundings  of  which  they 
seemed  a  part,  snatches  them  away  from  busi- 
ness, and  society,  and  home,  and  sets  them  into 
a  new  environment.  It  breaks  short  off,  some- 
times very  ruthlessly,  the  associations,  and 
friendships,  and  affectionate  intercourse  of  this 
world,  separates  families,  comes  between  hus- 
band and  wife,  and  converts  the  life  of  those 
who  are  left  into  channels  which  are  new  and 
strange.  Yes,  death  is  the  great  separator,  and 
we  cannot  think  of  it  as  such  without  some 
sense  of  dread. 

But  we  shall  find  comfort  in  the  thought  that 
its  separations  are  only  for  a  time.  The  soul 
and  body  which  it  has  parted  asunder  shall 
surely  be  rejoined  for  all  eternity.  The  time 
shall  come  when  death  will  have  no  more 
dominion  over  them.  The  kindred  souls  which 
have  been  bound  together  in  this  life,  but 
which  the  cold  hand  of  death  has  parted  for 
awhile,  shall  not  be  kept  eternally  apart.  For 
it  is  true  that  now  in  the  time  of  this  mortal 
life  we  are  choosing  our  surroundings  and  asso- 
ciations for  eternity.  Those  whom  we  love 
here  and  with  whom  we  cast  in  our  lot  now  will 
be  our  companions  throughout  all  the  life  to 
come.  If  we  identify  ourselves  with  those  v/ho 
know  not  God,  who  care  only  for  this  present 
world,    whose   influence   is   downward   all    the 


Q- 


Wliat  is  Death?  ib; 

time,  we  shall  have  our  place  with  them  for- 
evermore.  If  we  have  loved  and  sought  here 
upon  earth  the  presence  of  God  and  the  com- 
panionship of  holy  souls,  we  shall  have  our 
portion  with  them  hereafter.  It  is  an  almost 
overpowering  thought;  the  associations  and 
friendships  of  to-day — we  are  making  them  for 
eternity.  If  they  are  good  and  true  and  pure, 
such  shall  they  be  forevermore.  If  they  are 
false  and  base  and  contaminating  to  the  soul, 
we  shall  be  dragged  down  and  enchained  by 
them  everlastingly.  Our  environment  after 
death  will  be  the  same  which  we  have  chosen 
for  ourselves  upon  earth.  It  will  be  true  of  us 
as  it  was  with  Judas,  each  of  us  will  "go  to  his 
own  place."  ^  To  die  is  to  join  that  innumer- 
able company  of  departed  souls,  like-minded 
with  ourselves,  with  whom  our  course  of  life  in 
this  world,  whether  good  or  evil,  has  fitted  lis 
to  dwell  eternally.  And  if  some  whom  we  have 
loved  be  left  behind  and  lost  awhile,  they,  too, 
will  soon  be  united  with  us  by  death.  Let  us 
remember,  then,  that  if  death  separates,  it  also 
unites. 

But  death  is  not  only  a  great  separator,  it  is  also 
a  great  liberator.    Think  how  it  sets  the  soul  free. 

I.  Its  bondage  to  the  body  is  brought  to  an 
end  by  death.     Those   lower  appetites  whick 

I  Acts  i.  25. 


1 88  Holy  Week— Monday, 

strove  to  enslave  and  degrade  it  are  forever 
quenched.  That  weakness  of  the  flesh  which 
hindered  all  its  higher  activities  is  overcome. 
All  the  ills  which  flesh  was  heir  to  can  no 
longer  harass  and  hurt  the  soul.  The  long 
struggle  between  soul  and  body  for  the  mastery 
is  ended  now.  The  immortal  soul  is  free,  free 
from  the  dominion  of  unruly  appetites,  free 
from  all  carnal  claims,  free  to  spend  its  whole 
strength  in  the  pursuit  of  holiness.  Like  our 
Lord,  we  are  **put  to  death  in  the  flesh,  but 
quickened  by  the  spirit."  ' 

2.  But  more  than  this.  If  death  finds  us  at 
peace  with  God,  it  sets  the  soul  free  from  the 
assaults  of  sin.  It  snatches  the  soul  away  out 
of  the  reach  of  sin.  After  death  there  shall  be 
no  more  messengers  of  satan  sent  to  buffet  us, 
no  more  warfare  against  ' '  evil  thoughts  which 
may  assault  and  hurt  the  soul,"  no  more  beset- 
ting sins  beleaguering  the  citadel  of  the  soul, 
no  more  relentless  spiritual  foes  to  be  grap- 
pled and  beaten  with  hea^'y  blows  and  brought 
into  subjection,  no  more  danger  of  falling  back 
into  sin.  '*  Our  soul  is  escaped,  even  as  a  bird 
out  of  the  snare  of  the  fowler;  the  snare  is 
broken  and  we  are  delivered."  =  When  through 
death  it  entered  into  life,  it  died  once  for  all  to 
sin.     ''The  body  of  sin  has  been  destroyed, 

I  I.  St.  Peter  iii.  i8.  2  Psalm  cxxiv.  6. 


What  is  Death  ?  1 89 

that  henceforth  we  should  not  serve  sin.     For 
he  that  is  dead  is  freed  from  sin."  ' 

3.  Finally,  the  soul  which  has  been  given  to 
God  is  set  free  from  suffering  at  the  hour  of 
death.  It  rests  from  its  labours.  For  it  there 
is  no  more  toil,  no  more  heavy  burdens  to  be 
borne,  no  more  weary  struggles  to  keep  in  the 
right  way.  Its  disappointments  are  at  an  end. 
For  it  there  are  no  more  withered  hopes,  nor 
dreary  loneliness,  nor  voiceless  gloom,  nor  sink- 
ing of  the  heart  into  dark  despair.  Its  afflic- 
tions are  forever  past.  There  shall  be  no  more 
pain,  nor  persecution,  nor  bitterness,  nor  blind- 
ing tears,  nor  farewells,  nor  cravings  unsatis- 
fied, nor  iron  entering  into  the  soul,  nor  shall 
there  be  any  more  death.  But  the  soul,  un- 
clothed, unfettered,  free,  shall  thenceforth  live 
mightily  unto  God.  Liberated  by  the  hand  of 
death,  it  has  gone 

Home  to  the  Holy  Land, 

Home  where  no  shadows  fall, 
Home  to  the  golden  strand. 

Home  to  the  Monarch's^Hall, 
Home  from  all  risk  of  harm, 

Home  to  the  Land  of  Rest, 
Home  to  the  Father's  Arm, 

Home  to  the  Saviour's  Breast. 

1  Romans  vi.  6,  7. 


HOLY  WEEK. 


TUESDAY. 

OBEDIENCE    UNTO    DEATH. 


"  O  death,  where  is  thy  sting?  O  grave,  where  is  thy  victory? 
The  sting  of  death  is  sin,  and  the  strength  of  sin  is  the  law. 
But  thanks  be  to  God,  which  giveth  us  the  victory  through  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ." — /.  Cor.  xv.  55-57' 

Until  our  Blessed  Lord  hung  on  the  Cross 
there  had  been  none  in  all  the  human  race  who 
had  not  felt  the  sting  of  death.  That  great 
change  had  been  made  terrible  to  them  by  the 
sense  of  sin,  by  the  accusing  conscience,  by  the 
deep-rooted  opposition  of  their  nature  to  the 
holy  will  of  God,  which  made  them  dread  its 
approach.  Down  to  that  time  death  had 
reigned  over  the  whole  human  race  as  a  con- 
queror. "  As  by  one  man  sin  entered  into  the 
world,  and  death  by  sin;  so  death  passed  upon 
all  men,  for  that  all  have  sinned."  ^     There  had 

1  Romans  v.  12. 


Obedience  Xjnto  Death.  191 

been  a  few  who  by  miraculous  powei'S  had  been 
brought  back  from  the  grave  and  restored  for  a 
time  to  hfe  in  this  world.  But  none  of  them 
had  been  emancipated  from  the  dominion  of 
death.  Some  day  it  would  claim  them  again, 
and  then  its  victory  would  be  complete.  But 
Christ  upon  the  Cross  changed  all  that.  In  the 
perfection  of  His  sinless  humanity  and  in  the 
resistless  power  of  His  incarnate  Godhead,  He 
met  death  upon  the  battleground  of  the  Cross, 
strove  with  it  for  the  mastery,  and  came  off 
conqueror,  and  more  than  conqueror.  Since 
then    "death   is   swallowed    up   in   victory."  ' 

Let  us  try  during  this  Holy  Week  to  learn  how 
the  victory  was  won.  We  have  found  Jesus  in 
all  the  other  experiences  of  life  the  perfect  pat- 
tern of  manliness;  we  shall  find  Him  on  the 
Cross  the  divine  en  sample  of  a  godly  life  and 
death.  We  shall  learn  from  Him  how  to  con- 
quer death. 

To-day  let  us  think  of  the  first  weapon  by 
which  He  won  His  victory.  He  "humbled 
Himself,  and  became  obedient  vmto  death,  even 
unto  the  death  of  the  cross."  ^ 

"Obedient."     Think  how  much  that  means. 
Think  of  the  "Only-begotten  Son  of  God,  be- 
gotten of   His   Father   before  all  worlds,  God 
of  God,  Light  of  Light,  very  God  of  very  God, 
1 1.  Cor,  XV.  54,  2  Phil.  ii.  8. 


192  Holy  Week — Tuesday. 

begotten,  not  made,  being  of  one  substance 
with  the  Father,"  obedient  unto  death  as 
though  He  were  the  vilest  sinner  of  the  whole 
human  race.  Think  of  the  Incarnate  Son,  in 
whom  "  dwelleth  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead 
bodily,"  '  "who  did  no  sin,  neither  was  guile 
found  in  His  mouth,"  "bearing  our  sins  in  His 
own  body  on  the  tree."  =  See  the  Maker  and 
Monarch  of  all  things  bowing  Himself  down  to 
death,  humbling  Himself  even  to  the  death 
upon  the  Cross.  '*  Though  He  were  a  Son,  yet 
learned  He  obedience  by  the  things  which  He 
suffered."  3 

It  is  a  splendid  thing  to  see  the  obedience  of 
our  Blessed  Lord  in  the  humble  home  at  Naza- 
reth, in  the  wild  wilderness,  in  the  upper  room 
at  Jerusalem,  in  Gethsemane,  in  every  act  of 
that  self-sacrificing  life  in  which  He  "pleased 
not  Himself."  But  all  these  shining  examples 
of  obedience  (bright  and  beautiful  as  they  are) 
grow  pale  before  the  crowning  glory  of  His 
obedience  unto  death.  That  sublime  act  of 
obedience  was  one  of  the  secrets  of  His  ability 
to  destroy  death.  "Being  made  perfect.  He 
became  the  author  of  eternal  salvation  to  all 
them  that  obey  Him."  -»  Like  Samson  bowing 
beneath  the  pillars  of  Dagon's  house.  He  bent 

1  Col.  ii.  9.  3  Hebrews  v.  8. 

2  I.  St.  Peter  ii.  22-24.        4  Hebrews  v.  9. 


Obedience  Unto  Death.  193 

His  body  to  the  Cross,  bringing  upon  Himself 
the  crushing  weight  of  the  sins  of  the  whole 
world,  but  forever  breaking  the  power  of  man's 
great  adversary,  death.  It  was  through  His 
splendid  obedience  to  death  as  the  Son  of  Man 
that  He  was  able  to  triumph  as  the  Son  of  God. 
He  stands  before  the  world  as  the  divine-human 
example  how  to  gain  the  victory  over  death. 

The  first  great  lesson  which  we  learn  from 
the  Cross  is  the  lesson  of  obedience.  Let  us 
try  to  impress  it  deeply  upon  our  hearts  to-day 
by  emphasizing  some  special  features  of  our 
Blessed  Lord's  obedience  in  the  hour  of  death. 

I.  First,  let  us  remember  that  it  was  a  purely 
voluntary  obedience.  There  was  no  element 
of  compulsion  about  His  death.  His  sinless  hu- 
manity was  not  subject  to  the  sentence  of  death 
which  had  fallen  upon  all  those  who  were  con- 
ceived and  born  in  sin.  Death  had  no  right  to 
claim  Him  for  its  own.  His  life  was  entirely 
in  His  own  hands.  He  did  not  hesitate  to 
assert  this  in  the  plainest  terms.  "  I  lay  down 
My  life,  that  I  might  take  it  again.  No  man 
taketh  it  from  Me,  but  I  lay  it  down  of  Myself. 
I  have  power  to  lay  it  down,  and  I  have  power 
to  take  it  again."  '  In  the  exercise  of  this 
sovereign  control  over  His  own  life,  and  at  the 
same  time  of  a  glad  and  ready  obedience  to  His 
I  St.  John  X.  17--18. 


194  Holy  Week — Tuesday. 

Father's  will,  He  submitted  Himself  to  the 
embrace  of  death,  which  otherwise  could  have 
had  no  power  over  Him  at  all.  **  He  bowed 
His  head  and  gave  up  the  ghost."  It  was  the 
bowed  head  that  gave  permission  to  the  powers 
of  death  to  advance  and  take  His  sacred  Body 
into  their  grasp.  The  bowed  head  of  our 
Saviour  on  the  Cross  is  God's  revelation  to  the 
world  of  the  duty  of  implicit  obedience  to  the 
divine  will. 

2.  But  we  must  notice  not  only  the  willing- 
ness, but  the  completeness  of  our  Blessed  Lord's 
obedience.  His  submission  and  self-sacrifice 
knew  no  bounds.  They  were  perfect  at  every 
point,  and  of  limitless  extent.  He  was  obedient 
unto  death,  that  is,  even  up  to  death.  His 
obedience  did  not  stop  short  of  the  utmost 
boundaries  of  His  being;  it  included  all  His 
energies,  and  even  the  remotest  event  of  His 
earthly  ministry;  it  extended  even  to  the  death 
of  the  Cross.  In  scope  and  depth  it  was 
infinite. 

3.  Finally,  let  us  remember  that  it  was  an 
effective  obedience.  It  robbed  death  of  its 
sting  and  deprived  the  grave  of  its  victory. 
The  sting  of  death  is  sin  and  the  victory  of  the 
grave  is  corruption.  But  for  Him  who  did  no 
sin,  neither  was  guile  found  in  His  mouth ;  who 
had  power  to  take  His  life  again ;  who  was  only 


Obedience  Unto  Death,  IQS 

resigning  His  body  into  the  hands  of  death  for 
a  time,  that  He  might  fulfill  all  righteousness, 
the  terrors  of  death  were  reduced  to  their  lowest 
terms.  It  might  sunder  His  body  from  His 
soul,  but  only  during  His  pleasure.  It  might 
separate  the  Great  Shepherd  from  His  little 
flock,  but  only  for  a  few  days.  It  might  seem 
to  triumph  over  Him,  but  the  real  victory  lay 
with  Himself.  His  great  glad  act  of  obedience 
was  destined  to  be  the 

"  Death  of  death,  and  hell's  destruction." 

And  so  even  in  the  hour  of  death  His  human 
soul  was  soothed  and  sustained  by  the  con- 
sciousness of  victory. 

Let  us  plant  deeply  in  our  hearts  to-day  the 
comforting  assurance  that  by  such  obedience  as 
His,  we,  too,  may  gain  the  mastery  over  death. 
When  we  have  put  ourselves  entirely  into  the 
strong  and  loving  hands  of  God,  and  determined 
to  let  His  Will  be  done,  we  have  conquered 
death.  It  cannot  touch  us  until  God  wills,  and 
even  then  it  can  have  no  real  dominion  over  us. 
For  the  Son  of  Man  has  sovereign  power  over 
death,  and  has  said  of  Himself,  "  I  am  He  that 
liveth  and  was  dead;  and  behold  I  am  alive  for 
evermore,  Amen;   and   have  the  keys  of  hell 

and  of  death."  ' 

I  Rev.  i.  i8. 


HOLY  WEEK. 


WEDNESDAY. 
LOVE    STRONGER    THAN    DEATH. 


"  When  Jesus  knew  that  His  hour  was  come  that  He  should 
depart  out  of  this  world  unto  the  Father,  having  loved  His  own 
which  were  in  the  world,  He  loved  them  unto  the  end." — Sf. 
John  xiii.  i. 

While  we  gather  as  devout  learners  round 
our  Saviour's  Cross,  there  is  something  else  for 
us  to  do  besides  observing  His  sufferings.  Let 
us  try  to-day  to  enter  into  the  mind>of  Christ, 
and  learn  how  He  was  occupied  upon  the  Cross. 
Let  us  strive  to  realize  some  of  the  thoughts 
which  passed  through  His  mind  in  those  last 
hours  of  His  ministry  among  men.  The  words 
spoken  from  the  Cross  will  give  us  some  insight 
into  the  thoughts  of  His  heart  and  show  us  how 
our  minds  should  be  occupied  in  the  hour  of 
death. 


Love  Stronger  Than  Death,  1 97 

Of  whom,  then,  did  our  Lord  think  while  He 
hung  upon  the  Cross  ?  Were  his  thoughts  turned 
in  upon  Himself  ?  He  was  the  central  figure  in 
the  world's  history,  on  Him  hung  the  destinies 
of  the  whole  human  race.  He  was  engaged  in  a 
tremendous  effort  for  the  redemption  of  a  lost 
world.  He  was  the  Mediator  (and  the  only  pos- 
sible mediator)  between  God  and  man.  It 
would  not  have  been  strange  if  His  thoughts 
had  been  centered  upon  Himself  and  wholly 
occupied  with  the  great  transaction  in  which  He 
was  engaged. 

But  evidently  it  was  not  so.  Throughout  that 
Holy  Week  He  had  seemed  to  be  always  think- 
ing of  others  rather  than  Himself.  Looking 
down  from  the  brow  of  Olivet,  He  had  wept 
over  the  Holy  City  which  He  loved.  Led  forth 
from  the  High  Priest's  Palace,  He  had  rescued 
His  perjured  disciple  by  a  look.  Through  all 
the  weary  hours  when  He  had  been  dragged  to 
and  fro  at  the  caprice  of  an  unjust  judge,  He 
had  borne  Himself  with  a  majestic  dignity 
which  seemed  hardly  conscious  of  self;  He  had 
seemed  not  to  be  absorbed  in  His  sufferings, 
but  in  the  thought  of  the  souls  whom  He  had 
come  to  save.  As  He  crept  feebly  along  the 
way  of  sorrows,  sinking  beneath  the  crushing 
burden  of  His  Cross,  He  had  spoken  words  of 
compassion   for   the   daughters    of    Jerusalem. 


198  Holy  Week— Wednesday. 

And  now,  as  He  hung  upon  the  cruel  Cross,  His 
first  and  foremost  thoughts  were  not  for  Him- 
self, but  for  His  fellowmen.  Let  us  trace  them 
one  by  one  as  they  are  betrayed  to  us  by  His 
words. 

Close  round  the  foot  of  the  Cross  is  gathered 
a  group  of  rude  soldiery,  busy  with  their  ghastly 
work.  They  have  crucified  Him  and  now  they 
are  casting  lots  for  His  seamless  robe.  The  first 
thought  of  the  Divine  Martyr  is  for  them.  His 
first  words  from  the  Cross  are  a  prayer  for  His 
executioners.  Looking  down  upon  them  with 
infinite  tenderness,  He  breaks  the  awful  silence 
with  these  blessed  words:  "Father,  forgive 
them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do."  ' 

By  His  side  upon  another  cross  there  hangs 
a  thief.  As  this  unhappy  man  looks  into  the 
face  of  death,  he  sees  how  vile  he  was.  As  he 
gazes  with  growing  wonder  at  his  Fellow-suf- 
ferer, and  sees  with  what  silent  uncomplaining 
majesty  He  endures  the  Cross,  some  glimmer- 
ing intelligence  of  His  sovereign  power  and 
Messiahship  dawns  upon  his  mind.  His  heart 
is  flooded  with  a  rush  of  penitence,  and  sympa- 
thy, and  sublime  faith.  His  lips  falter  this  trem- 
bling prayer,  "  Lord,  remember  me  when  Thou 
comest  into  Thy  kingdom."  Prompt  and 
powerful  is  the  reply:  **  Verily  I  say  unto  thee, 
I  St.  Luke  xviii.  34. 


Love  Stronger  TJian  Death.  199 

to-day  shalt  thou  be  with  me  in  Paradise."  ' 
Again  we  find  our  Lord  thinking  not  of  Him- 
self, but  of  the  repentant  robber  by  His  side. 

Amidst  the  vast  and  restless  crowd  which 
surges  round  our  Saviour's  Cross  there  are  many 
enemies,  and  but  few  friends.  These  last  have 
pressed  bravely  forward  and  drawn  as  close  as 
possible  to  the  lonely  Sufferer.  They  are  watch- 
ing with  Him  to  the  bitter  end.  As  He  looks 
round  Him,  He  sees  His  Beloved  Disciple  stand- 
ing near,  with  a  familiar  figure  by  his  side.  It 
is  a  woman,  well  stricken  in  years,  and  bowed 
with  grief.  It  is  His  mother.  The  same  faith- 
ful form  which  bent  over  the  cradle  of  His 
human  childhood  has  come  to  stand  by  the 
death-bed  of  His  Cross.  He  turns  upon  her  His 
eyes,  half  blinded  by  pain,  and  yet  filled  with 
unspeakable  tenderness.  She  gazes  back  upon 
the  bleeding,  dying  form  of  her  Son.  He 
knows  full  well  what  is  passing  in  His  mother's 
heart,  and  He  has  time,  even  in  the  midst  of 
His  great  work  for  the  salvation  of  a  lost  world, 
to  turn  aside  and  care  for  her.  His  next  words 
from  the  Cross  are  words  of  divine  thoughtful- 
ness,  hallowing  the  ties  of  family  and  home. 
To  His  Beloved  Disciple  He  gives  this  sacred, 
solemn  charge :  "Behold  thy  mother,"  and  to  His 
faithful  mother  this:  "Woman,  behold  thy  Son."  - 
»  St.  Luke  xxiii.  42,  43.  2  St.  John  xix.  26,  27 


200  Holy  Week— Wednesday. 

And  from  that  hour  that  disciple  took  her 
to  his  own  home.  Thus,  in  the  time  of  His 
severest  trial,  we  find  Him  caring  with  the  ut- 
most tenderness  for  the  pure  and  loving  mother, 
who  had  followed  Him  through  life  and  even 
unto  death,  transfiguring  His  Cross  and  Passion 
with  the  splendour  of  sublime  unselfishness. 

Here  then  we  have  another  great  and  precious 
lesson  from  the  Cross.    We  find  our  Lord,  even 
in  the  midst  of  His  sharpest  agony,  when  every 
word  cost  Him  a  pang  of  pain,  when  we  might 
have  expected  to  find  His  whole  being  absorbed 
in   the    tremendous   struggle   against   sin    and 
death,  praying   for  His   murderers,   promising 
Paradise  to    a   repentant    thief,  and  providing 
His  widowed  mother  with  a  home.     It  is  the 
loftiest   example   of   unselfish   care   for   others 
which   the  world   has  ever  seen.     The   loving 
face  of  Jesus  looking  down  from  the  Cross,  in 
pity  upon  his  murderers,  in  pardon  upon  the 
penitent   thief,    and  in  fond   affection    on   His 
mother  and  St.  John,  is  the  very  incarnation  of 
that  perfect  love  which  casteth  out   fear,  yes, 
even  the  fear  of  death.     Love  is  stronger  than 
death.     Death  cannot  quench  nor  kill  it.     Love 
lives  after  death,  it  reaches  its  perfection  and 
finds  its  full  fruition  beyond  the  grave.     Even 
in  the  hour  of  death  perfect  love  can  cast  out 
all  fear.     The  heart  that  beats  warm  with  love 


Love  Stronger  Than  Death.  20I 

for  God  cannot  be  chilled  by  death's  cold  hand. 
The  mind  that  is  filled  with  loving  thoughtful- 
ness  for  its  friends  and  fellowmen,  busied  with 
care  for  their  highest  interests,  has  no  room 
left  in  it  for  the  fear  of  death.  Like  the  soul  of 
our  dying  Lord,  it  finds  strength  and  peace  in 
loving  "its  own  unto  the  end." 

Let  us  then  take  home  this  lesson  to  our 
hearts.  Love  is  stronger  than  death.  It  tri- 
umphs over  death  and  takes  away  its  sting. 
When  we  have  filled  our  hearts  full  of  love  to 
God  and  love  to  man  we  can  smile  serenely  into 
the  face  of  death.  In  the  power  of  a  self-for- 
getting, undying  love  we  can  look  with  un- 
shaken confidence  through  the  shadows  of  death 
to  the  life  beyond  the  grave. 

"  For  then  shall  break  eternal  day. 
And  breathe  from  far  life-giving  air, 
And  life  be  Love,  and  Death  be  dead." 


HOLY  WEEK. 


MAUNDY  THURSDAY. 
THE    BLESSING    OF    A    FINISHED    LIFE. 


"  It  is  finished." — St.  John  xix.  ^o. 

Our  Blessed  Lord  still  hangs  upon  the  Cross, 
but  His  sufferings  are  drawing  to  a  close.  The 
bitter  cry  of  loneliness  is  hushed,  and  the  mys- 
terious darkness  has  given  way  to  light.  The 
sacred  life  is  closing  now,  is  even  at  an  end. 
The  parched  lips  and  burning  tongue  of  the 
Great  Sufferer  have  but  one  word  to  speak  to  us. 
It  is  the  mightiest  and  most  meaningful  word 
ever  spoken  by  the  tongue  of  man,  for  it  an- 
nounces the  salvation  of  a  lost  world. 

**  It  is  finished."  How  various  are  the  mean- 
ings which  it  bears  to  those  who  hear  its  solemn 
sound. 

I.  To  the  enemies  of  the  Crucified  it  speaks 
of  victory  won.     He   who  has  so  long  defied 


Tho,  Blessing  of  a  Finished  Life.        203 

and  baffled  them  is  in  their  grasp  at  last.  He 
who  has  saved  others  cannot  save  Himself. 
They  see  Him  dying  now,  dying  a  death  of 
shame.  God  has  not  interfered  to  save  Him 
nor  to  punish  them.  They  have  utterly  de- 
stroyed Him  from  off  the  face  of  the  earth. 

2.  To  the  few  faithful  friends  who  watch 
timidly  beside  His  Cross,  the  words  sound 
like  the  knell  of  hope.  "It  is  finished."  All 
is  over  now.  He  whom  they  had  trusted  as  the 
Redeemer  of  Israel  is  dying  now.  As  they 
gaze  upon  His  tired  bleeding  form,  one  by  one 
their  fondest  hopes  are  falling  dead.  Never 
again  shall  they  walk  and  talk  with  Him  by  sil- 
very lake,  or  in  the  garden,  or  on  the  lonely 
mountain-side.  Scattered  and  humbled,  all 
their  high  hopes  gone,  they  will  seek  their  homes 
again,  and  wait  for  another  Christ.  Such  are 
their  coward  thoughts.  So  little  have  they 
learned  to  know  of  what  His  life  and  death 
should  be. 

3.  But  for  Himself,  how  full  of  joy  and 
satisfaction  is  the  word.  To  His  weary  body 
and  heavy  laden  soul,  how  glad  must  be  the 
sound.  After  the  storm  and  strain  through 
which  He  has  struggled  on  to  the  end,  how 
sweet  must  be  the  promised  rest.  How  com- 
plete, how  glorious,  is  the  triumph  opened  up 
to  the  eye  of  faith  by  that  word  of  power. 


204       Holy  Week — Maundy  Thursday, 

" '  It  is  finished.'     O  !  what  pleasure 
Do  the  precious  words  afford ! 
Heavenly  blessings  without  measure 
Flow  to  us  from  Christ  the  Lord. 

'  It  is  finished ! ' 
Saints,  the  dying  word  record. 

Finished  all  the  types  and  shadows 
Of  the  ceremonial  law  ; 
Finished  all  that  God  has  promised ; 
Death  and  hell  no  more  shall  awe. 

'  It  is  finished  !  ' 
Saints,  from  hence  3'our  comfort  draw." 

This  word  of  our  Lord  from  the  Cross  is  The 
Toiler's  Cry  of  Triumph.  God  has  given  Him 
a  great  work  to  do — a  double  work;  to  make 
known  God  to  men,  and  to  bring  men  back 
to  God.  To  accomplish  this  tremendous  task 
has  been  the  master-purpose  of  His  earthly 
life.  By  the  well  of  Sychar  He  declared,  "  My 
meat  is  to  do  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  Me,  and 
to  finish  His  work."  '  Every  energy  of  His 
being,  every  moment  of  His  time,  has  been 
devoted  to  that  work.  Since  the  first  glad  day 
when  He  began  to  be  about  His  Father's  busi- 
ness. He  has  toiled  day  and  night  and  taken  no 
rest.  And  now  the  great  work  of  atonement 
is  done.  The  patient  life  of  toil,  the  long 
nights  of  fervent  prayer,  the  weary  journeys 
over  land  and  sea,  the  desperate  struggles  with 

I  St,  John  iv.  34. 


The  Blessing  of  a  Finished  Life.       205 

the  powers  of  sin  are  at  an  end.  **  Father,  the 
hour  is  come.  I  have  glorified  Thee  on  the 
earth,  I  have  finished  the  work  which  Thou 
gavest  Me  to  do.  I  have  manifested  Thy  name 
unto  the  men  which  Thou  gavest  Me  out  of  the 
world.  And  now,  I  am  no  more  in  the  world,  but 
these  are  in  the  world,  and  I  come  to  Thee."  ' 

This  word  is  also  the  Sufferer's  Cry  of  Relief. 
The  work  which  our  Blessed  Lord  had  under- 
taken to  do  in  the  world  could  not  be  accom- 
plished without  intense  suffering.  No  great 
and  good  work  can.  Nor  can  there  be  any 
full-grown  character  which  is  not  matured  by 
suffering.  But  now  the  life  of  patient  endur. 
ance  which  began  in  the  manger  of  Bethlehem, 
and  deepened  into  the  mystery  of  the  Passion, 
has  culminated  in  the  awful  agony  of  the  Cross. 
**It  is  finished."  All  that  the  vScriptures  fore- 
told of  the  Man  of  Sorrows  has  been  fulfilled. 
The  powers  of  hell  have  done  their  worst. 
The  bitter  cup  of  suffering  has  been  drained 
to  the  dregs.  The  full,  perfect,  and  sufficient 
sacrifice  has  been  made.  To  the  aching  limbs^ 
the  bleeding  hands,  the  broken  heart,  the  tor- 
tured soul,  relief  has  come  at  last.  The  Chief 
Sufferer  is  entering  into  His  rest. 

"It    is   finished."      Sometime    these    words 
will  be  said  of  our  life  in  this  world.     They 

I  St,  John  xvii.  I,  4,  6,  II. 


206       Holy  Week — Maundy  Thursday . 

will  mean  a  great  deal  to  us-    God's  calls  ended, 
our  opportunities  gone,  our  probation  past,  our 
lifework  stopped,  our  gifts  of  grace  consumed, 
our    last    communion    made,    our     last    word 
spoken,  the    last    scene    of    life    closed.      Our 
friends  will  reverently  lower  our  mortal  body 
into  its  last  resting-place  and  pass  their  verdict 
upon  our  life.     What  will  they  be  able  to  say 
of  us  in  that  day?     Can  they  say  that  our  work 
is  done,  that  we  have  finished  the  work  which 
God  gave  us  to  do?     Or  "will  they  say,  "  It  is 
such  a  pity,  so  sad,  such  an  unfinished  life,  cut 
off  before  it  began  to  bear  fruit,  so  much  left 
undone    which   ought    to    have    been    done?" 
What  shall  we  ourselves  be  able  to  say  of  our 
life  in  that  day  when  we  are  called  upon  to 
give  it  back  to  God?     He  has  entrusted  it  to 
us,  not  simply  that  we  may  keep  it  for  Him  or 
use  it  for  ourselves,  but  that  we  may  use  it  for 
Him.     He  has  given  us  a  work  to  do  in  this 
world,  a  definite  work,  wisely  chosen  for  us  by 
Him,   and   which   we  alone  can   do.     He   has 
appointed  certain  trials  for  us  to  bear,  certain 
temptations  for    us    to    meet    and    overcome. 
Upon  our   accomplishment  of    this  God-given 
task  depends  our  eternal  destiny.     To  finish  it 
is  to  fulfill  the  chief  end  of  our  being,  to  make 
a   success   of    life,    to    gratify    God    and    win 
Heaven  for  ourselves.     To  leave  it  undone  is 


The  Blessing  of  a  Finished  Life.        207 

to  squander  the  most  splendid  opportunities, 
prove  ourselves  unfaithful  to  a  sacred  trust, 
grieve  our  good  God,  and  risk  all  our  hopes 
of  happiness.  When  we  have  finished  our 
work  we  can  go  hence  without  fear,  for  we 
know  that  henceforth  ' '  there  is  laid  up  for  us 
a  crown  of  righteousness,  which  the  Lord,  the 
righteous  judge,  shall  give."  '  Death  is  shorn 
of  one  of  its  chief  terrors,  the  fear  of  an 
offended  God.  He  who  can  lay  down  his 
lifework  at  the  feet  of  God  and  say,  "It  is 
finished,"  need  not  be  afraid  of  death. 

Let  us  set  ourselves  anew  to-day  to  strive 
after  a  finished  life;  a  life  full  of  deeds  of  faith, 
and  love,  and  Christian  kindliness;  full  perhaps 
of  toil  and  trial,  but  done  bravely  to  the  end. 
Let  us  resolve  to  find  out  what  is  the  special 
work  which  God  has  given  us  to  do  and  bend 
all  our  energies  to  finish  it. 

I II.  St.  Timothy  iv.  8. 


HOLY  WEEK. 


GOOD   FRIDAY. 

THE    SURRENDER    OF    THE    SOUL. 


And  when  Jesus  had  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  He  said, 
Father,  into  lliy  hands  I  commend  My  spirit ;  and  having  said 
this,  he  gave  up  the  ghost. — S/.  Ltike  xxiii.  46. 

We  are  to  listen  to-day  to  the  last  words  of 
our  Saviour  from  the  Cross,  and  are  to  learn 
from  them  our  final  lesson  how  to  die.  There 
is  no  weakness  nor  wavering  now.  With  a 
voice  firm,  and  clear,  and  strong,  the  Divine 
Martyr  speaks.  Full  of  serene  faith  and  kingly 
power  are  His  words.  They  place  His  soul 
forever  beyond  the  reach  of  death.  "  Father, 
into  Thy  hands  I  commend  My  spirit."  The 
body  hangs  upon  the  Cross,  but  the  sacred  head 
is  bowed  in  token  of  a  willing  surrender  to  the 
powers  of  death.  The  marks  of  the  long  strife 
are  there,  the  wounds  are  open,  and  the  thorns 
still  pierce  the  pallid  brow.     But  the  mangled 


The  Surrender  of  the  Son/.  209 

hands  and  feet  feel  no  more  pain,  the  pulse  is 
still,  the  broken  heart  has  ceased  to  throb,  the 
closed  eyes  no  longer  see  the  staring  crowd,  the 
tired  body  is  at  rest.  The  soul,  too,  is  free. 
Far  from  the  scorn  of  men  and  free  from  satan's 
power,  it  lies  in  the  arms  of  God.  No  more  of 
shame  and  grief  and  loneliness  for  it,  but  rest 
and  peace  and  glory  by  the  great  white  throne. 
A  few  hours  of  rest  in  Paradise,  a  few  days  of 
lingering  on  this  earth  again,  and  then — "for- 
ever with  the  Lord." 

Notice  the  superb  sense  of  power  with  which 
our  Saviour  surrenders  His  soul  into  His  Father's 
hands.  It  is  not  rent  from  Him  against  His 
will  by  the  powers  of  death.  He  plucks  it  away 
out  of  those  hostile  hands  and  commits  it  to  His 
Father's  care.  The  soldiers  have  never  seen  a 
victim  of  the  cross  die  in  so  short  a  time. 
Those  who  hang  by  His  side  will  live  on  till 
death  comes  to  their  release.  But  He  dies  by 
His  own  free  act.  No  power  in  Heaven  or 
earth  constrains  Him  to  lay  down  His  life.  Of 
His  own  free  will  He  lays  it  in  His  Father's 
hands.  He  deposits  it  in  a  safe  place,  from 
whence,  after  the  crisis  of  death  is  past,  in  the 
bright  dawn  of  the  first  Easter  Day,  it  shall  be 
restored  to  Him.  He  seems  to  say  within  Him- 
self, ''I  know  whom  I  have  believed,  and  am 
persuaded  that  He  is  able  to  keep  that  which  j 


2IO  Holy  Week — Good  Friday, 

have  committed  to  Him  against  that  day."  * 
And  so,  in  the  exercise  of  resistless  power,  He 
removes  His  soul  out  of  the  reach  of  all  the 
enemies  by  whom  it  is  beset,  into  the  shelter 
and  safe-keeping  of  His  Father's  House.  And 
thus  He  robs  the  powers  of  darkness  of  their 
prey. 

Our  dying  Saviour  teaches  us  how  to  die; 
when  all  is  finished,  giving  up  our  souls  gladly 
and  fearlessly  into  the  embrace  of  God,  "as 
into  the  hands  of  a  faithful  Creator  and  most 
merciful  Saviour."  "We  need  fear  no  evil. 
"There  shall  no  torment  touch  them.  In  the 
sight  of  the  unwise  they  seemed  to  die,  and 
their  departure  is  taken  for  misery,  and  their 
going  from  us  to  be  utter  destruction,  but  they 
are  in  peace."  ^  The  Christian  soul  at  death 
goes  not  out  into  the  dark,  nor  into  the  grasp 
of  remorseless  enemies.  It  passes  into  the 
strong  and  loving  hands  of  God.  By  commend- 
ing it  to  Him  we  can  place  it  far  above,  out  of 
the  reach  of  harm.  The  surrender  of  the  soul 
to  God  overcomes  much  of  the  sharpness  of 
death,  and  converts  the  victory  of  the  grave 
into  defeat.  It  emancipates  our  higher,  truer, 
real  self  from  the  obedience  of  death.  When 
our  Blessed  Lord  had  commended  His  spirit 
into  His  Father's  hands  He  was  willing,  ready, 
I  II.  St.  Timothy,  i.  12.  2  Wisdom  iii.  1-3. 


The  Surrender  of  the  Soul,  211 

yes,  anxious  to  die.  Even  so  the  Christian 
who  has  surrendered  his  soul,  is  ready  to  go 
Home  to  God.  He  knows  that  for  Him  to 
depart  and  be  with  Christ  is  far  better  than  to 
linger  here,  and  He  obeys  his  Master's  call  with 

joy. 

To  the  Christian,  then,  it  is  not  a  faarful 
thing  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  Living  God. 
To  him  whom  it  finds  following  Christ  in  the 
Way  of  the  Cross,  death  means  freedom  from 
toil,  and  pain,  and  sin.  It  means  to  be  with 
Christ,  "to  feel,  to  see  Him  near."  It  means 
to  be  with  **  all  the  saints  who  from  their 
labours  rest."  It  means  unbroken  peace  and 
safety  for  the  soul.  It  means  that  all  the  shad- 
ows which  sin  and  death  have  flung  across  the 
pathway  of  life  have  fled  away,  and  the  sweet 
old  prophecy  is  coming  true — "At  evening 
time  it  shall  be  light."  ^  As  the  awful  darkness 
rolled  away,  and  the  light  of  the  Father's  coun- 
tenance shone  on  the  closing  scene  of  the  Sac- 
rifice of  the  Cross,  so  every  surrender  of  a  soul 
to  God  at  death  lets  in  a  flood  of  glory,  as  the 
"  day  breaks  and  the  shadows  flee' away."  How 
many  a  faithful  pastor,  standing  beside  the 
death-bed  of  a  Christian  soul  and  commending 
it  to  God,  has  seen  the  light  of  Paradise 
break  in  upon  the  soul  and  drive  away  all  fear 

I  Zechariah  xiv.  7, 


212'  Holy  Week — Good  Friday, 

of  death.  How  many  an  one  has  witnessed  the 
fulfillment  of  God's  precious  promise  to  the 
soul,  "  I  will  ransom  thee  from  the  power  of  the 
grave,  I  will  redeem  thee  from  death.  O  death, 
I  will  be  thy  plagues;  O  grave,  I  will  be  thy 
destruction."  ' 

When  our  Lord  commends  His  soul  into 
His  Father's  hands,  He  teaches  us  how  to  die. 
But  He  teaches  us  at  the  same  time  how  to  live. 
If  we  would  die  the  death  of  the  righteous,  we 
must  live  the  life  of  the  righteous.  If  we  would 
commend  our  souls  to  God  in  death,  we  must 
commend  them  to  Him  now  in  the  time  of  this 
mortal  life.  We  must  be  faithful,  true,  and 
obedient  followers  of  His  life,  if  we  would  have 
our  last  end  like  His.  Being  closely  united  to 
Him,  He  will  be  our  hope  and  stay  in  life  and 
in  death.  Then,  ''whether  we  live,  we  live 
unto  the  Lord;  and  whether  we  die,  we  die 
unto  the  Lord;  whether  we  live,  therefore,  or 
die,  we  are  the  Lord's."  " 

"Father,  into  Thy  hands  I  commend  My 
spirit."  These  have  been  the  last  words  of  a 
multitude  of  God's  saints.  Borrowing  them 
from  their  Lord,  they  have  made  them  their 
own  dying  words.  Hallowed  by  the  use  of  our 
Blessed  Lord  and  of  hundreds  of  His  miost  faith- 
ful followers,  they  are  the  best  of  all  words  in 

I  Hosea  xiii.  14.  2  Romans  xiv.  8. 


The  Surrender  of  the  Soul.  213 

which  to  surrender  up  the  soul  to  God.  Let  us 
resolve  to-day  that,  if  possible,  they  shall  be  our 
own  last  words  in  this  world.  Let  us  take  them 
to  ourselves,  and  treasure  them  up  in  our  hearts, 
and  use  them  often  while  we  live,  and  have 
them  ready  when  we  die. 


HOLY  WEEK. 


EASTER  EVEN. 
AFTER    DEATH. 


"  Verily  I  say  unto  thee,  To-day  shall  thou  be  with  me  in 
Paradise." — S/.  Luke  xxiii.  4j. 

It  is  the  Great  Sabbath  of  the  Passover.  An 
unbroken  calm  broods  over  the  Holy  City,  with 
its  multitudes  of  pilgrim  worshippers;  over 
Calvary,  with  its  empty  crosses  and  trampled 
summit,  and  all  its  pathetic  signs  of  recent 
tragedy;  over  Joseph's  garden  with  its  new- 
made  sepulchre  and  guard  of  Roman  soldiery. 
Within  the  rock-hewn  chamber  of  death,  the 
sacred  form  now  rests  in  peace.  How  sweet 
and  blessed  is  its  rest !  Yesterday  dragged  along 
the  way  of  sorrows,  nailed  to  the  cruel  Cross, 
held  up  to  the  scorn  of  men,  pierced  with  the 
sharp  thrust  of  the  spear  ;  now  laid  by  loving 
hands  in  the  silence  and  seclusion  of  the  tomb, 
with  angels  standing  by,  at  rest.  The  little 
band  of  faithful  followers  have  this  to  comfort 


After  Death.  2  1 5 

them,  even  in  their  despair, — the  lifeless 
body  of  their  Lord  is  theirs  again,  and  is  be- 
yond the  reach  of  harm.  They  have  laid  it 
with  reverential  tenderness,  "Where  the 
wicked  cease  from  troubling,  and  the  weary  be 
at  rest."  ' 

But  where  is  the  soul  of  Jesus  during  this 
calm  day  ?  It  left  the  tired  body  hanging  on  the 
Cross,  and  passed  into  the  protecting  hands  of 
God.  It  entered  the  place  of  departed  spirits, 
that  vast  waiting  place  of  human  souls,  where 
all  who  have  ever  drawn  the  breath  of  life 
await  the  coming  of  the  great  Judgment  Day. 
To  those  who  have  known  and  loved  God,  it  is 
a  home  of  rest,  and  peace,  and  growing  near- 
ness to  their  Lord.  To  him  "  who  hath  trodden 
under  foot  the  Son  of  God,  and  hath  counted 
the  blood  of  the  covenant,  wherewith  he  was 
sanctified,  an  unholy  thing,  and  hath  done  des- 
pite unto  the  spirit  of  grace,"  to  such  as  have 
deliberately  and  defiantly  rejected  Him,  it  is  a 
state  of  unrest,  "a  fearful  looking  for  of  judg- 
ment." =  In  this  border-land  of  Eternity,  in 
that  happy  part  of  it  which  He  describes  as 
Paradise,  His  human  soul  awaits  the  Resur- 
rection Day. 

The  most  triumphant,  kingly  promise  which 
He  ever  made  was  that  with  which  amidst  the 
I  Job  iii.  17,  aHebrews  x.  27,  29. 


2  1 6  Holy  Week — Easter  Even, 

shame  and  suffering  of  the  Cross  He  gladdened 
the  heart  of  the  penitent  thief.  "  To-day  shalt 
thou  be  with  Me  in  Paradise."  Above  the 
hoarse  clamour  of  the  mob,  in  face  of  all  the 
remorseless  powers  which  were  dragging  Him 
down  to  the  grave,  out  of  the  black  shadows  of 
impending  death,  ring  out  the  clear  tones  of 
that  splendid  promise,  which  only  divine  power 
could  execute.  It  was  the  death  sentence  of 
death  itself.  Jesus  Christ  on  the  Cross,  face  to 
face  with  death,  feeling  its  cold  hand  upon 
Him,  and  painfull}^  conscious  of  its  power  over 
Him,  felt  also  His  power  over  it,  knew  that  it 
could  not  hurt  His  soul,  and  spoke  with  serene 
confidence  of  His  life  in  Paradise  after  death. 
And  more  than  that,  He  promised  the  same 
blessed  life  to  His  fellow-sufferer.  That  prom- 
ise did  not  fail.  The  soul  of  the  Convert  of  the 
Cross  is  with  that  of  his  new-found  Lord  in 
Paradise. 

Think  what  Easter  Even  is  to  the  penitent 
thief.  By  virtue  of  those  kingly  words  he  is 
with  all  those  holy  souls  who  have  loved  God 
and  whom  God  loves.  He  has  gone  out  of  the 
visible  into  the  invisible,  apart  forever  from  the 
tumults  and  strifes  and  troubles  of  this  unquiet 
world,  into  the  rest  and  peace  and  security  of 
Paradise.  And  what  is  his  highest  happiness 
there?     Is  it  not  told  us  fully  in  these  words  of 


After  Death,  2VJ 

our  Lord:  "  To-day  slialt  thou  be  iviih  Me  in 
Paradise?"  To  be  with.  Christ  is  the  highest 
height  of  human  happiness,  is  the  best  thing 
God  has  to  give.  The  thief  timidly  asked  a 
place  in  the  remembrance  of  his  Lord,  and  is 
given  a  place  at  His  side.  Thus  God  ever 
gives  more  than  we  desire  or  deserve,  and 
His  best  and  sweetest  gift  is  to  be  with  Christ. 
The  Beloved  Disciple  never  tires  of  telling  us 
how  he  leaned  on  his  Master's  breast  at  the 
Eucharist,  but  how  much  better  to  be  with 
Him  in  Paradise. 

Our  Lord's  promise  from  the  Cross  is  not 
limited  in  its  scope.  If  we  will  have  it,  it 
extends  to  and  includes  us.  We  can  make  it 
a  blessed  reality  for  ourselves.  If  we  take 
Him  for  our  Lord,  death  will  only  be  to  us 
the  door  into  Paradise,  the  breaking  down  of 
all  barriers  between  us  and  Him.  Where  is 
the  sting  of  death  and  the  victory  of  the  grave, 
if  we  can  hear  ringing  out  through  the  gather- 
ing shadows  those  cheering  words,  "To-day 
shalt  thou  be  with  Me  in  Paradise?  "  It  is  the 
voice  of  the  Master  crying  aloud  to  us,  "Come 
forth  with  joy,  O  Christian  soul.  Come  apart 
from  the  body,  away  from  the  misery  of  a  sin- 
ful world,  beyond  all  reach  of  harm,  into  the 
audience  chamber  of  the  Great  King.  I  say  no 
longer,  whither  I  go,  ye  cannot  come.     I  will 


2l8  Holy  Week — Easter  Even, 

show  thee  the  path  of  life.  In  My  presence  is 
the  fulness  of  joy,  and  at  My  right  hand  there 
is  pleasure  for  evermore.  Enter  thou  into  the 
joy  of  thy  Lord." 

Our  Lenten  meditations  are  drawing  to  a 
close.  The  end  of  them  is  at  hand.  We  have 
tried  to  draw  nigh  to  God,  and  we  may  be  assured 
that  He  has  drawn  nigh  to  us,  even  though  we 
knew  it  not.  He  is  not  far  from  any  of  us  now, 
if  we  will  but  feel  after  Him  and  fmd  Him. 
Let  us  keep  close  to  Him  after  Lent  is  gone, 
and  cherish  the  lessons  He  has  taught  us  in 
these  forty  days.  Our  striving  for  the  mastery 
is  but  just  begun.  Let  us  try  to  continue  it 
according  to  the  pattern  given  us  by  St.  Paul, 
and  shown  us  on  Mount  Calvary. 

There  is  nothing  in  this  world  better  and 
sweeter  than  a  well-kept  Lent.  Let  us  offer 
up  ours,  such  as  it  is,  to  God.  If  we  feel  that 
it  has  been  kept  very  feebly,  very  imperfectly, 
let  us  still  offer  it  up  to  Him,  confessing  that 
we  are  at  best  but  unprofitable  servants,  and 
beseeching  Him  to  have  compassion  upon  our 
infirmities,  and  that  those  things  which  in  our 
unworthiness  we  dare  not,  or  in  our  blindness 
cannot  ask,  He  may  vouchsafe  to  give  us  for 
the  sake  of  His  Son. 

May  our  Incarnate  and  Risen  Lord  grant  us 
a  bright   and   blessed   Easter-tide.      May   His 


After  Death.  219 

Presence  be  with  ns,  making  itself  known  to  us 
in  the  Breaking  of  Bread,  causing  our  hearts  to 
burn  within  us  while  we  commune  with  Him, 
and  abiding  with  us  till  the  day  is  far  spent, 
and  the  evening  of  life  is  at  hand.  Then  may- 
He  mercifully  grant  that  "through  the  grave 
and  gate  of  death  we  may  pass  to  our  joyful 
resurrection;  for  His  merits,  who  died,  and  was 
buried,  and  rose  again  for  us." 


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Each  Meditation  is  based  upon  the  Gospel  for  the  day,  and  deals  with  some  link  in 
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Church  of  the  Incarnation,  Atlanta,  Georgia.  $i.oo 

This  book  claims  the  attention  of  all  those,  both  clergy  and  laity,  who  are  form- 
ing their  plans  for  Lent.  It  consists  of  a  series  of  forty  ten-minute  addresses  or 
readings,  following  a  systematic  line  of  thought  throughout  the  holy  season. 
It  will  appeal  especially  to  two  classes  of  people  : 

1.  Hard-worked  parish  priests,  who  do  not  find  time  for  the  preparation  of  such 
a  series  every  year,  and  yet  desire  to  help  their  people  to  draw  nigh  to  God  in 
the  practice  of  devout  meditation  during  Lent. 

2.  Christian  people  who  are  accustomed  to  spend  some  part  of  each  day  in  Lent 
in  spiritual  reading,  and  many  of  whom  are  deprived  of  Church  privileges. 

The  clergy  will  find  these  addresses  well  suited  for  reading  at  the  daily  services 
in  Church,  and  people  who  cannot  attend  such  services  will  find  them  equally 
adapted  for  morning  or  evening  reading  and  meditation  at  home. 
Contents  :  First  Week  in  Lent.  The  mastery  over  self—  Keeping  under  the 
body— Governing  the  mind— Bridling  the  tongue— The  subjugation  of  the 
will.  Second  Week.  The  mastery  over  temptation— The  trial  of  our  faith- 
Does  God  lead  us  into  temptation  ?— Is  it  a  sin  to  be  tempted  ?— Temptation 
to  distrust  God— Temptation  to  presumption  and  false  confidence— Tempta- 
tion to  do  evil  that  good  may  come.  Third  Week.  The  mastery  over  the 
world.  Is  the  world  our  friend  or  our  enemy  ?— Overcoming  the  evil  that  is  in 
the  world— Overcoming  the  world  by  faith— Non-conformity  to  the  world- 
Crucifying  the  world— The  profit  and  loss  of  worldliness.  Fourth  Week.  The 
mastery  over  adversity— The  school  of  life— The  mastery  by  poverty  of  spirit- 
By  meekness— By  mourning— By  peace-making— Through  persecution.  Fifth 
Week.  The  mastery  over  sin— The  mystery  of  iniquity— The  pervasiveness  of 
sin— The  deceitfulness  of  sin— The  lawlessness  of  sin— The  malignity  of  sin— 
The  mystery  of  godliness.  Sixth  Week.  The  mastery  over  suffering— Betrayal 
—Misjudgment— Poverty— Sufferings  of  the  body— Sufferings  of  the  soul— The 
reward  of  suffering.  Holy  Week.  The  mastery  over  death— What  is  death  .> 
—Obedience  unto  death— Love  stronger  than  death— The  blessing  of  a  finished 
life— The  surrender  of  the  soul— After  death. 

The  Communion  of  Saints.  By  the  Rev.  Wyllys  Rede,  D.D.  With 
a  Preface  by  Lord  Halifax.     Crown  Svo.  ^1-25 

"  The  book  is  valuable  as  a  clear  exposition  of  the  teaching  of  the  Church  concern- 
ing the  fellowship,  the  brotherhood  which  in  her  mind  e.xists  between  all  who  are 
baptized  into  the  Church  of  Christ,  whether  living  or  departed.  And  it  will  be 
found  no  less  valuable  as  affording  the  truest  and  most  efficacious  consolation  to 
all  the  sad  company  of  those  who  grieve  because  their  friends  are  not.  One  turns 
away  with  almost  angry  impatience  from  the  wearisome  commonplaces  with 
which  many  good  people'seek  to  bind  up  the  breaking  heart,  for  they  act  like  salt 
upon  a  raw  wound.  It  is  only  in  the  truth  that  all  are  one  in  Christ  -the  doctrine 
of  the  Communion  of  Saints- that  any  healing  for  such  sorrow  resides.  There- 
fore, both  on  this  account  and  for  the  clear  statement  of  this  doctrine,  the  book  is 
a  very  valuable  one,  and  deserves  to  be  not  only  widely  read  by  church  people,  but 
carefuUv  digested."— P.-\cific  Church.man. 


LONGMANS,    GREEN,    d-    CO:S  PUBLICATIONS. 

REV.    C.    ERNEST   SMITH. 

In  the  Household  of  Faith.  By  the  Rev.  C.  Ernest  Smith,  M.A., 
Rector  of  the  Church  of  St.  Michael  and  All  Angels,  Baltimore,  Md. ; 
Examining  Chaplain  to  the  Bishop  of  Maryland.      i2mo,  pp.  xi.-29';. 

fi.25. 
"  The  work  is  fully  up  with  the  times,  and  apt  illustrations  drawn  from  peri- 
odical literature  make  it  avaluable  repository  of  facts  pertinent  to  the  important 
questions  here  treated.    .    .    .    The  reading  of  this  book    .    .    .    will  be  a  pleasant 
and  profitable  task  for  all  who  love  the  Church." — Churchman,  New  York. 

Call  to  Confirmation.    A  Manual  of  Instruction  for  Candidates.     By 

the  Rev.  C.  Ernest  Smith,  M.A.     Paper,  12  cents  ;/t'/y  cloth,  25  cents. 

"...  Admirable  in  plan  and  execution.  .  .  .  Just  the  kind  of  thing  we 
have  long  been  looking  for.  ...  It  will  be  found  most  helpful  in  this  most 
difficult  and  delicate  duty  of  properly  preparing  Candidates  for  Confirmation." — 
Church  Affairs,  Easton,  Md. 

The  Old  Church  in  the  New  Land.  Lectures  on  Church  History.  By 
the  Rev.  C.  Ernest  Smith,  M.A.  With  a  Preface  by  the  Bishop  of 
Maryland.     Crown  8vo,  cloth.  $1.25. 

"We  heartily  endorse  the  recommendation  of  the  Bishop  of  Maryland,  and  we 
go  farther  :  we  should  say  that  this  little  book  is  perhaps  the  very  best  historical 
account  of  the  Church  of  England  for  family  reading  that  we  have  ever  seen  :  and 
an  attentive  congregation,  to  which  these  lectures  should  be  read,  would  be  well 
prepared  to  vindicate  the  position  of  the  Anglican  Church  against  the  assaults  of 
either  Rome  or  Geneva.  It  is  not  a  controversial  book,  but  its  statements  are  so 
plain  as  to  make  argument  superfluous." — The  Church  Standard. 

"  These  lectures  deserve  all  the  praise  we  can  give  them.  We  strongly  recom- 
mend their  addition  to  parish  libraries,  and  their  study  to  teachers,  lay  readers, 
and  to  not  a  few  of  the  clerg>'.  They  retell  the  story  of  the  old  Church  in  the  new 
land  with  an  accuracy  of  detail  both  in  fact  and  doctrine  that  is  refreshing,  and 
with  a  style  as  vigorous  and  pointed  as  it  is  clear." — The  American  Church 
Aluan.ac,  1895. 

"  Here  is  a  book  for  every  member  of  the  Brotherhood  to  own  and  study.  Mr. 
Smith  very  justly  says  :  '  A  knowledge  of  some  of  the  chief  facts  in  the  history  of 
the  Church  has  become  almost  a  necessity  to  every  Churchman,  and  there  are,  con- 
sequently, few  subjects  upon  which  lecture-sermons  can  more  appropriately  be 
preached  in  our  day  than  on  Church  History,  especially  on  the  history  of  our  own 
branch.  To  some  persons  this  may  seem  a  very  unedifying  kind  of  a  subject ; 
they  prefer  what  is  known  as  "  Gospel  preaching  ;  "  they  have,  indeed,  no  interest 
in  any  other  ;  and  if,  unfortunately,  they  are  compelled  to  listen  to  any  other, 
they  imagine  there  is  no  help  in  it,  and  are  none  the  better  for  it,  but  rather  the 
worse.' 

"This  is  all  true  enough,  and  when  this  instruction  is  given  with  a  clearness 
and  freshness  that  illuminate  the  subject,  it  becomes  a  pleasure  as  well  as  a  duty 
to  receive  it.  .  .  .  With  a  scholarship  which  is  never  heavy,  with  a  belief 
in  tlie  Catholic  Church  which  never  descends  into  mere  partisanism,  the  lectures, 
in  the  words  of  the  Bishop  of  Maryland,  who  writes  the  preface,  admirably  fulfil 
their  purpose  to  trace  the  links  of  that  continuity  (between  the  Church  in  America 
and  the  Church  in  England),  to  make  Churchmen  feel  sure  through  them  of  an 
apostolic  origin,  to  help  them  know  that  ihis  is  no  late-born  sect,  but  that  in  it  we 
are  in  the  very  'fellowship  of  the  Apostles.'  .  .  .  Make  yourself  a  .  .  . 
present  of  this  book,  read  it,  digest  it,  and  then  lend  it  as  widely  as  possible 
among  your  friends."— St.  Andrew's  Cross. 

"The  whole  story  is  told  in  strong  and  clear  outline,  in  a  very  interesting  and 
instructive  way,  and  any  one  who  follows  the  plain  teaching  in  this  little  volume 
cannot  fail  to  be  convinced  of  the  identity  of  our  Church  with  that  Church  which 
the  Lord  Jesus  founded.  We  wish  that  every  layman  would  read  it,  for  wc  are 
sure  he  would  find  it  full  of  strength  and  truth."— The  Living  Church. 


A    SELECTED    LIST 

OF    THEOLOGICAL    BOOKS 

PUBLISHED    BY 

LONGMANS,   GREEN,    &    CO.,    NEW    YORK 


REV.  ALFRED  G.  MORTIMER,  D.D. 

The  Seven  Last  Words  of  Our  Most  Holy  Redeemer.  IVith  Medi- 
tations on  Some  Scoies  in  His  Passion.  By  the  Rev.  Alfred  G.  Mor- 
timer, D.D.,  Rector  of  St.  Mark's,  Philadelphia.      i2mo.  $i.oo 

Contents  :  Meditations  on  the  Passion— I.  The  Scourging  of  our  Blessed  Lord 
—II.  The  Mockery  of  our  Blessed  Lord— III.  The  Presentation  of  our  Blessed 
Lord  to  the  People— IV.  The  Cross-bearing  of  our  Blessed  Lord— V.  The  Pierc- 
ing of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ— VI.  The  Uplifting  of  the  Cross  of  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ. 

The  Three  Hours'  Agony  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ— Introductory  Address 
—The  First  Word— The  Second  Word— The  Third  Word— The  Fourth  Word— 
The  Fifth  Word— The  Si.xth  Word— The  Seventh  Word. 

■'The  Meditations  in  this  volume  were  given  in  Lent  (1S95)  in  St.  Mark's, 
Philadelphia,  at  noon  on  Fridays.  Though  complete  in  themselves,  they  are  really 
a  continuation  of  a  course  on  the  Passion  of  our  Blessed  Lord  which  had  been  de- 
livered in  St.  Mark's  the  previous  Lent.  In  the  latter  course  the  Passion  had 
been  treated  as  witnessing  as  a  whole  to  certain  moral  virtues.  In  the  present 
series  a  few  scenes  in  the  Passion  have  been  taken  in  relation  to  the  individual 
^?"VrM  Addresses  on  the  Seven  Last  Words  were  given  in  the  same  church  at 

the  I  hree  Hours'  Service  on  Good  Friday,  1805.  Together  they  form  a  consecu- 
tive series  of  Meditations  for  Holy  Week  or  for  the  Fridays  in  Lent."— ^o-Zratr/ 
from  Preface. 

BISHOP  A.  C.  A.  HALL. 

The  Virgin  Mother.  Retreat  Addresses  on  the  Life  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin  Mary,  as  Told  in  the  Gospels.  With  an  Appended  Essay  on 
the  Virgin  Birth  of  Our  Lord.  By  the  Rt.  Rev.  A.  C.  A.  Mall,  D.D., 
Bishop  of  Vermont.       i2mo.  I1.25 

"It  is  often  said,  and  the  saying  is  true,  that  Protestantism  and  Anglicanism 
have  lost  something  of  sweet  Christian  tenderness  in  their  extreme  reaction  from 
the  semi-idolatrous  cultus  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  which  prevailed  in  the  Middle 
Ages.  We  have  not  the  slightest  tendency  to  that  form  of  doctrinal  aberration  • 
nor  would  it  be  possible,  we  suppose,  for  any  clear-minded  Englishman  or  Ameri- 
can to  join  in  the  glowing  but  hyperbolical  addresses  to  the  Mother  of  our  Lord 
which  are  found  in  the  liturgies  of  Oriental  Churches  ;  yet  it  does  seem  that  some- 
thing has  been  lost  in  our  habitual  forgetfulness  of  the  human  being  to  whom  our 
blessed  Lord  in  His  earthly  life  was  nearest  and  dearest,  and  who,  doubtless,  of 
all  the  sons  and  daughters  of  men,  was- nay,  perhaps  still  is-nearest  and  dear- 
est to  Him  In  this  little  volume.  Bishop  Hall  very  admirablv  and  delicately  dis- 
coursesof  the  Blessed  Virgin  with  the  reverent  affection  which  is  due  to  her.  and 
yet  vvithout  the  slightest  approach  to  the  extravagances  which  our  Church  has 
rightly  and  wisely  banished.  In  a  brief  appendix  he  has  written  a  few  timely 
words  on  the  subject  of  the  virgin  birth  of  our  Lord,  considered  as  an  article  of 
the  Christian  faith."— The  Church  Standard,  Philadelphia. 


LO.VGJ/A.VS,    GREEN,    d-^    CO: S  PUBLICATIONS. 

AIDS  TO  THE  INNER  LIFE.  Edited  by  the  Rev.  W.  H.  HuTCH- 
INGS,  M.A.,  Rector  of  Kirkby  Wisperton,  Yorkshire.  5  volumes,  each 
volume  sold  separately,  as  follows  : 

32mo,  cloth  limp.  $0.25 

32mo,  cloth  extra.  .50 

Of  the    Imitation   of   Christ.     By  Thomas  a   Kempis.     In  Four 
Books. 

The  Christian  Year.     Thoughts  in  Verse  for  the  Sundays  and  Holy 
Days  throughout  the  Year. 

The  Devout  Life.     By  St.  Francis  de  Sales. 

The  Hidden  Life  of  the  Soul.     From  the  French  of  Jean  Nicolas 
Grou. 

The    Spiritual    Combat.     Together  with    the  Supplement   and  the 
Path  of  Paradise.     By  Laurence  Scupoli. 

Uniform  with  the  above  : 

The  Light  of  the  Conscience.     By  H.  L.  Sidney  Lear. 

The  Spiritual  Letters  of  St.  Francis  de  Sales. 

AVANCINI.  Vita  et  Doctrina  Jesu  Christi.  Ex  Quatuor  Evan- 
gelislis  collecta  et  in  Meditatioiium  Materiam  ad  Singulos  totius  Anni 
Dies  distributa.  Per  N.  Avancinum,  S.  J.  Ad  usum  Cleri  Anglicani 
accommodavit  Presbyter  Ignotus.     Editio  Secunda.     iSmo.  $1.00 

"  Besides  its  orifjinal  purpose  as  a  help  to  meditation,  Avancini  would  make  a 
valuable  help  to  the  preparation  of  short  sermons.  There  arc  in  all  some  400 
meditations,  and  each  meditation  has  three  points.  Almost  everyone  of  these 
points  would  bear  amplification  into  a  sermon  a  few  minutes  long' :  and.  if  the 
book  were  used  in  this  way  we  should  hear  less  than  we  do  from  the  clergy  ol 
the  difficulty  of  preparation,  and  from  the  laity  of  the  extent  to  w-hich  it  is  omitted." 

— Gu.-VRDI.^N. 

BALFOUR.  The  Foundations  of  Belief:  Being  Notes  Introductory 
to  the  Study  of  Theology.  By  the  Right  Hon.  Arthur  J.  Balfour, 
M.  P.     Fifth  Edition.     Crown  8vo.  $2.oc' 

BATHE.     Works  by  Anthony  Bathe,  M.A. 

What   I   Should  Believe.     A  Simple  Manual  of  Self-instruction  foi 
Church  People.      Crown  8vo.  $0.75 

A  Lent  with  Jesus.     A   Plain   Guide   for  Churchmen.     Containing 
Readings  for  Lent  and  Easter  Week,  and  on  the  Holy  Eucharist.  $0.40 

The  Christian's  Roadbook.    By  Anthony  B.a.the  and  F.  H.  Buck- 
ham,  Vicar  of  Sledmere,  Yorkshire. 

Part  I.       Devotions.      i6mo,  cloth  limp.  $0.35 

Part  II.    Readings.     With  an  Introduction  by  W.  J.  Kno.x;  Little, 

M.A.,  Canon  of  Worcester.     i6mo,  cloth  limp.  $0.75 


LONGMANS,    GREEN,    &-    CO.'S  PUBLICATIONS. 

BENSON.  The  Final  Passover  :  A  Series  of  Meditations  upon  the 
Passion  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  By  the  Rev.  R.  M.  Benson,  W.A., 
Student  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford.      i2nio,  cloth. 

Vol.  I.     The  Rejection.  %i.oo 

Vol.  II.     The  Upper  Chamber.     Two  parts.  Each,  1.75 

Part  I.  The  Last  Supper.  Part  II.  The  Final  Discourse  and  Prayer. 
Vol.  III.     The  Divine  Exodus.     Two  parts.  Each,  f  1.75 

Vol.  I\\     The  Life  Beyond  the  Grave.  2.00 

"  It  is  a  book  which  may  be  used  with  the  greatest  advantage  by  Christians  of 
every  school  and  creed,  without  any  fear  of  being  jarred  by  the  conflict  of  views 
at  variance  with  their  own.  For  it  is  not  a  book  of  views  and  opinions,  but  of  deep 
and  profound  spiritual  devotion."— Pacific  Churchm.\n,  San  Francisco. 

BIRCH.  The  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  according  to  the 
Teaching  of  the  Primitive  Church  and  of  Anglican  Divines,  By 
Edward  Jon.\tha.\  Birch,  J\I.A.,  Rector  of  Overstone  and  Hon. 
Canon  of  Peterborough.      iSmo.  $0.35 

BODY.     Works  by  the  Rev.  George  Body,  D.D.,  Canon  of  Durham. 

The  Life  of  Temptation.  A  Course  of  Lectures  delivered  in  sub- 
stance at  St.  Peter's.  Eaton  Square  ;  also  at  All  Saints',  Margaret 
Street.      6th  Edition.      Crown  Svo.  $1.00 

Contents:  The  Leading  into  Temptation— The  Rationale  of  Temptation — 
Why  we  are  Tempted — Safety  in  Temptation — With  Jesus  in  Temptation— The 
End  of  Temptation. 

The  Life  of  Justification.  A  Series  of  Lectures  delivered  in  sub- 
stance at  All  Saints',  Margaret  Street.    6th  Edition.    Crown  Svo.  $1.00 

Contents:  Justification  the  Want  of  Humanity— Christ  our  Justification — 
Union  with  Christ  the  Condition  of  Justification— Conversion  and  justification — 
— The  Life  of  Justification— The  Progress  and  End  of  Justification. 

The  School  of  Calvary  ;  or,  Laws  of  Christian  Life  Revealed  from 
the  Cross.  A  Course  of  Lectures  delivered  in  substance  at  All  Saints', 
Margaret  Street.      Small  Svo.  $1.00 

The  Life  of  Love.     A  Course  of  Lent  Lectures.     i2mo.  $1.25 

In  his  treatment  of  the  subject,  Canon  Body  draws  out  from  the  life  and  recorded 
sayings  of  the  Mother  of  our  Lord  the  lesson  that  the  Christian  life  is  a  life  of 
love;  of  separation:  of  consecration:  of  association ;  of  joy  which  sounds 
through  every  versicle  of  the  magnificat  of  sorrow  ;  and  in  every  stage  a  life  of 
ministry.  How  admirably  he  has  drawn  these  lessons  from  the  Gospel  story  of 
the  Blessed  Virgin  can  only  be  appreciated  by  a  reader  of  his  lectures." — Church 
Standard,  Philadelphia. 

BODY.  The  Permanent  Value  of  the  Book  of  Genesis  as  an  Integral 
Part  of  the  Christian  Revelation.  By  the  Rev.  C.  W.  E.  Body, 
M.A.,  D.C.L.,  Professor  of  Old  Testament  Literature  and  Interpreta- 
tion  in  the   General  Theological  Seminarv,  New  Vork.     Crown    Svo. 

$1.50 


LONGMANS,    GREEN,    &^   CO.'S  PUBLICATIONS. 

CARTER.     Works    Edited    by   the  Rev.    T.   T.   Carter.    M.A.,   Hon. 
Canon  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford. 

The  Way  of  Life.  A  Book  of  Prayers  and  Instruction  for  the  Young 
at  School,  with  a  Preparation  for  Confirmation.  Compiled  by  a  Priest. 
i8mo.  .  $0.60 

Meditations  on  the  Life  and  Mysteries  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ.  From  the  French.  By  the  Compiler  of  "  The  Treas- 
ury of  Devotion."     Crown  8vo.     Sold  separately. 

Vol.  1.     The  Hidden  Life  of  our  Lord.  $1.50 

Vol.  IL     The  Public  Life  of  our  Lord. 

Part  I.,  $2.00.     Part  IL,  I2.00. 
Vol.  III.     The  Suffering  and  Glorified  Life.  1.50 

The  Star  of  Childhood.  A  First  Book  of  Prayers  and  Instruction 
for  Children.     Compiled  by  a  Priest.     i6mo.  $1.00 

The  Guide  to  Heaven.  A  Book  of  Prayers  for  Every  Want.  Com- 
piled by  a  Priest.      Large  Type.      i2mo,  cloth.  .$0.60 

Cloth  limp.  .40 


The   Path    of  Holiness.     A   First  Book  of  Prayer  for    the  Young. 
Compiled  by  a  Priest.     i6mo.  $0.60 

CARTER.  Preparation  for  Worship.  A  Series  of  Five  Short  Ad- 
dresses on  the  Best  Answer  in  the  Cluirch  Catechism.  By  F.  E.  Car- 
ter, M.A.,  Canon  Missioner  of  Truro  Cathedral.      Small  8vo.       i?o.75 

COLES.     Seven  Addresses  Delivered  at   St.   Paul's  Cathedral  at 

the  mid-day  service,  Good  Friday,  1879.     By  V.   S.   S.   CoLES,  M.A., 
Librarian  of  the  Pusey  House.  O.xford.      Small  8vo.  $0.40 

COMPTON.  The  Armoury  of  Prayer.  A  Book  of  Devotion.  By  Berd- 
MORE  CoMPTON,  M.A. ,  Sometime  Vicar  of  All  .Saints',  Margaret  Street. 
Fourth  Edition.      i8mo.  $1.25 

"  It  has  a  marked  individuality  of  its  own,  and  will  no  doubt  meet  with  a  cer- 
tain number  of  persons—chiefly  men.  it  is  probable— to  whose  spiritual  wants  it 
is  fitted  above  others.  Those— and  their  number  is  far  larger  than  is  generally 
borne  in  mind  — will  find  here  a  manual  rich  and  abundant  in  its  material  for  devo- 
tion, but  remarkably  modern  in  its  tone,  fitted  to  e.xpress  the  feelings  and  to  in- 
terpret the  aspirations  of  a  cultured  dweller  in  towns;  and  it  is  emphatically  a 
book  of  and  for  the  times."— Literary  Churchman. 

DAILY  GLEANINGS  OF  THE  SAINTLY  LIFE.  Compiled 
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The  Second  Passover— Christ  with  the  Twelve— The  Twelve  Sent  Forth. 

Our  Lord's  Ministry.     (Third  Year.) 

Teaching  in  Galilee— Teaching  at  Jerusalem— Last  Journey  from  Galilee  to 
Jerusalem. 

The  Holy  "Week. 

The  Approach  to  Jerusalem— The  Teaching  in  the  Temple— The  Discourse  on 
the  Mount  of  Olives— The  Last  Supper. 

Our  Lord's  Passion. 

The  Hour  of  Darkness-  The  Agony— The  Apprehension— The  Condemnation 
—The  Days  of  Sorrows— The  Hall  of  Judgment— The  Crucifi.xion— The  Sepulchre. 

Our  Lord's  Resurrection. 

The  Dav  of  Davs— The  Grave  Visited— Christ  Appearing— The  Going  to 
Emmaus— The  Forty  Days— The  Apostles  Assembled— The  Lake  of  Galilee— The 
Mountain  in  Galilee— The  Return  from  Galilee. 

"  There  is  not  a  better  companion  to  be  found  for  the  season  than  the  beautiful 
'  Devotional  Commentary  on  the  Gospel  Narrative.'  by  the  Rev.  Isaac  Williams. 
A  rich  mine  for  devotional  and  theological  study."— Guardian. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

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